The National
Bank of Belgium (NBB) announced on Monday its monthly business survey revealed that business confidence was
nearly unchanged in November compared to October but remained pessimistic for the
29th straight month.
According to
the survey, the indicator, measuring the Belgian business leaders’ confidence, increased to -11.1 in November from -12.8 in the prior month. This marked the first rise in the index in five months.
Economists had anticipated
the indicator to advance to -12.2 in November.
The strongest improvement
in confidence occurred in the building industry (+3.3 points m-o-m to -5.3 in
November) and business-related services (+3.2 points m-o-m to +7.0 in November).
In addition, confidence in the manufacturing industry, which had been eroding
since June, recovered somewhat this month (+1.6 points m-o-m to -16.7 in
November). In contrast, business sentiment deteriorated significantly in trade
(-5.2 points m-o-m to -9.7 in November).