Business confidence has held steady in August, the National Bank of Belgium (NBB) reported on Friday.
"Businesses are expecting an increase in demand, accompanied by a rise in their orders with suppliers," the NBB explained. "Only employment forecasts are more unfavourable, although this has not prevented the synthetic indicator from rising after two months of decline."
Confidence in the construction industry is suffering from much gloomier demand forecasts and a less favourable assessment of order-book levels.
However, the confidence indicator has stabilised in industry. This is linked to the decline in all underlying components, except for demand forecasts, which have risen sharply, says the NBB.
