Little change in business sentiment in August in Belgium

• The business barometer has displayed minor fluctuations in recent months, with confidence falling slightly this month.
• For the third consecutive month, business sentiment in the manufacturing industry deteriorated. In contrast, confidence rose significantly in trade and, for the second month in a row, in construction. In business-related services, the business climate was virtually stable.

In the manufacturing industry, the new weakening of sentiment was mainly due to a sharp deterioration in employment expectations and, to a lesser extent, demand expectations.
In business-related services, a more negative assessment of the current level of activity was more than offset by much more favourable expectations in this area. Nonetheless, business leaders in this sector are more pessimistic about the future development of general market demand.

In the building industry, confidence is on the rise. Equipment was more intensively used, order books grew further and the level thereof was assessed more positively. Here, too, however, business leaders expect demand to ease in the coming three months.

Finally, the significant rise in the indicator in trade can be attributed to a clear upward revision in demand expectations and even more so in intentions of placing orders with suppliers.
The overall synthetic smoothed curve, which reflects the underlying economic trend, reached a turning point and dipped slightly for the first time in seven months

Source: NBB
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