MADRID, 20 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Harmonized Business Confidence Indicator (ICEA), whose publication corresponds to the National Institute of Statistics (INE), rose 2.7% in the second quarter of this year, its highest rise since the third quarter of 2022, when a 7.5%

The increase in business confidence registered for the April-June period is exclusively due to the improvement in the expectations indicator, in a context marked by the moderation of the inflation rate and higher interest rates.

Specifically, the balance of expectations (difference between the opinions of optimistic and pessimistic businessmen) stood at 3.4 points in the second quarter of this year. This indicator had not registered positive data since the third quarter of 2019, before the pandemic.

This is due to the fact that 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 20.6%, its highest percentage since the third quarter of 2021.

In contrast, those who think that their business will evolve unfavorably in the second quarter have fallen from 24.9% in the previous quarter to 17.2%, while the proportion of businessmen who expect a "normal" evolution has increased. " of your business, from 60% to 62.2%.

For its part, the balance sheet (difference between favorable and unfavorable responses compared to the quarter that ended) has worsened by more than two points compared to the previous quarter, going from 1.1 points in the first quarter to -1.5 points in the second .

This more negative view of the current situation is the result of the increase in business establishments who believe that their business has performed unfavorably in the last three months and the decrease in those who believe that it behaved positively.