Business confidence index pointer to recovery

The Chinese economy, multilateral finance institutions and analysts are starting to say, is seeing signs of a rebound and may even touch the 8 percent growth target for the year, even as the business confidence index for the world's third biggest economy increased during the second quarter of the year.

The National Bureau of Statistics yesterday said China's business confidence index had jumped to 110.2 in the second quarter, from 101.1 in the first and an eight-year low of 94.6 during the final quarter of 2008.

The jump indicated that China's industrial, construction and real estate sectors were showing the highest confidence in business outlook, and State-owned enterprises were rebounding with higher momentum than small- and medium-sized companies.