The Companies Survey for the second quarter of 2018 indicates that the business sector is continuing to grow at a solid pace, though lower than the rate in the previous two quarters. The net balance in the overall business sector decreased in the second quarter to the level reached in the second and third quarters of 2017, and remains positive, to a statistically significant degree (Figure 1 and Table 1). The net balance is positive and statistically significant in the services industry; it is near-zero and not statistically significant in the manufacturing industry; and it is negative and statistically significant in the trade industry. In the services, trade, and manufacturing industries, expectations are for expansion in the next quarter.

 

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