MADRID, 19 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Harmonized Business Confidence Indicator (ICEA), whose publication corresponds to the National Institute of Statistics (INE), rose 1.5% in the second quarter, thus chaining two consecutive quarters of increases after the 0.6% advance that it experienced in the first quarter of the year.

The increase in business confidence for the April-June period is due to the improvement of the expectations indicator, since the indicator on the current situation worsened compared to the previous quarter.

Specifically, the balance of expectations (difference between the opinions of optimistic and pessimistic businessmen) stood at 9.3 points in the second quarter of this year, compared to -1.6 points in the previous quarter.

This is because the percentage of business establishments that think that the progress of their business will be favorable between April and June of this year has stood at 23.1%, which is 4.5 points more than what was reported in the previous quarter.

On the other hand, those who think that their business will develop unfavorably in the second quarter have reduced from 20.2% in the previous quarter to 12.8%, while the proportion of businessmen who expect a "normal" evolution has increased. " of their business, from 61.2% to 63.1%.

For its part, the balance sheet (difference between favorable and unfavorable responses compared to the quarter ended) has worsened by more than five points compared to the previous quarter, going from 8.1 points in the first quarter to 3 points in the second quarter of the year. .