Bulgaria's business sentiment index in March rose by 2.3 percentage points from the previous month, after falling by 2.4 points in February, the National Statistics Institute (NSI) said on Wednesday.
In March the industrial sub-index remained unchanged for a third consecutive month as managers continued to perceive the current business situation as uncertain, albeit being somewhat optimistic regarding the sector's development in the next six months, the NSI said in a statement.
The sub-index in construction too remained unchanged from February as managers perceived the current business situation as satisfactory even though construction activity has shrunk. In retail the sub-index rose by 2.4 percentage points, and in the services the business climate gauge gained 9.2 percentage points reflecting a shift in managers' expectations to "the same" from "worse".
Overall, managers in all four sectors said they do not expect a hike in prices over the next three months.