Business confidence in the second quarter slowed their decline in all sectors, representing the first improvement since late 2006 and says that the Spanish economy bottomed in the first quarter of 2009.

This follows from the business confidence indicator (ECI) from July to develop the Chambers of Commerce. Sources of the Chambers of Commerce explained that the last time improved business confidence was in the last quarter of 2006, when the indicator is moving in positive rates.
At present, all components of the indicator is kept negative, suggesting that the greater percentage of companies that it considers the environment is negative compared to those who are positive, but the decline has slowed. "Although the business continues to deteriorate in the second quarter, the ECI indicates that quarterly growth in this period could have been less negative than the first," says Chambers. Specifically, the indicator showed an increase of 8.6 points over the corresponding month of April to the past and is at -19.0 points.

Difficulty achieving credits

In terms of expectations for the third quarter, employers also rely on a better development of their businesses. All variables that make up the ICE have developed better in the July survey about how they did in April, although rates remain negative, according to the conclusions drawn by the chambers of commerce.

For its part, the difficulties in financing its importance also moderated in the second quarter, as the percentage of firms indicating the factor is 26.6%, whereas in the previous quarter was 31.4%. The turnover of enterprises remains the variable with worse behavior, although the improvement recorded more intense, while demand falls with less intensity and mitigate the bad figures of billing companies.

In July, the survey confirms the improvement of industrial and construction sectors, and in the latter sector recovery is more intense, while service businesses, particularly hotels and tourism also provide an overall improvement.

Levante 22/07/2009