BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese businesses are slightly less worried about the economic outlook and their prospects than they were three months ago, according to a quarterly survey by the central bank.
The survey of more than 5,500 firms showed that, while businesses saw the economy as being significantly worse in the first quarter than the final three months of 2008, their expectations about growth in the second quarter improved somewhat.
They also saw their own businesses improving in the April-June period, the People's Bank of China said on its website.
The index measuring businesses' assessment of the economy in the first quarter registered -38.6 percent, which the central bank said was close to the lowest ever since the survey began in 1993. The outlook for the second quarter was a touch better at -31.6 percent.
The survey also showed that businesses were more satisfied about access to bank loans in the first quarter, though that sub-index was still in negative territory at -15.8 percent.
However, Chinese enterprises have felt the pinch from sharp declines in both domestic and overseas orders. The sub-index measuring domestic orders dropped by 4 percentage points to -10.7 percent, while the overseas order gauge sank 5 percentage points to -17.8 percent.
(Reporting by Langi Chiang and Aileen Wang; Writing by Jason Subler)
