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Business confidence falls in April
In the manufacturing industry, the loss of confidence after two months of gains was mainly due to a significantly less encouraging assessment of stock levels and a sharp downward revision of demand expectations. On top of this, employment expectations were also downgraded, but to a much lesser extent. In the business-related services sector, the indicator slipped back for a second consecutive month, with waning confidence mainly due to a clear deterioration in demand expectations which more than completely wiped out the strong uptick seen last month. In the building industry, equipment use intensified and order books ... (full story)