The Companies Survey for the second quarter of 2017 indicates that the business sector growth rate declined somewhat, but remains relatively high. The net balance remains positive, to a statistically significant degree, in the overall business sector, but moderated relative to the balance in the previous three quarters (Figure 1 and Table 1). The net balance in the manufacturing industry is near zero and not statistically significant, it is negative and very significant in the trade industries, positive but insignificant in the services industry, positive in the construction and transport and communication industries, and negative in the hotels industry.[1] In the services and trade industries, expectations are for expansion in the next quarter, while expectations in the manufacturing industry are that domestic demand will stabilize and demand from abroad will increase.

[1] In some of the surveyed industries, such as construction and hotels, there number of responses was small, and attention must be paid to this in relating to the findings for those industries.

 

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