China's entrepreneur confidence index dropped to 131.5 points in the second quarter of 2004, down 7.4 points from the first quarter, according to a survey of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The survey covers 19,500 enterprises of various types across the country, gauging entrepreneurs' confidence in the macro-economic environment.

By categories of registration, entrepreneurs of state-owned enterprises, collective enterprises, cooperative equity enterprises, jointly-run businesses and overseas-invested

enterprises posted a relatively small drop in the index, ranging from 2.7 to 6.6 points; entrepreneurs of companies of limited liability, joint-stock company with limited liability and private enterprises posted a relatively big drop, ranging from 9.7 to 14.1 points.

By industrial sectors, the entrepreneur confidence index in ferrous metals smelting and rolling dropped by 61.8 points and that in related ore exploitation and dressing dropped by 19.0 points respectively.

"Despite the drop, the current index shows the majority of entrepreneurs are still optimistic about the macro-economic situation," said an economic analyst here.

Source: Xinhua