• The overall Business Confidence Index (BCI) of SMEs for quarter Jan-Mar, 2011 is estimated at 65.2 on a scale of 0-100 (from most unfavorable to the most favorable change in the outlook). This represents a decrease from the BCI of last quarter estimated at 67.0.
• Within SMEs, the decline is to be felt more in the industrial sector than the services sector.
• Gross sales, new orders, capacity utilization and capacity expansion recorded a value of BCI in excess of 75, indicating improvement in these variables during the ongoing quarter over the previous one.