Benedito Mendonça
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Brasília - Industrialists' confidence level is high, and they believe that the sector will continue growing in the next six months. This affirmation was made today by Flávio Castelo Branco, coordinator of the Economic Policy unit of the National Confederation of Industry (CNI), during the announcement of the Industrial Entrepreneurs' Confidence Index (Icei), which the organization compiles on a quarterly basis.

The survey indicates the the level of confidence and the evaluation of current conditions among small and medium-sized firms is at their highest level since 1998, when the research began. On the other hand, the index presented a slight decline among large firms. "This leads us to believe that we may experience a small retraction in the rate of growth, perhaps in response to the monetary tightening that began in September and October of last year, when the last survey was conducted," Castelo Branco judges.

In the overall results, which encompass 1,200 companies, 200 of them large, the final indicator shows that future expectations remain positive, practically at the same level as in October, 2004. There was a small rise, from 63.8 to 64.9. A slightly greater increase occurred in relation to January, 2004, when the index stood at 62.4, compared with which the current reading of 64.9 represents a 2.5% improvement.

When the survey is broken down into the group of large entrepreneurs and the directors of small and medium-sized firms, one detects a slight difference in their behavior. According to Castelo Branco, this has always been the case, but this time there are signs that industry should remain alert.

"The small and medium-sized entrepreneurs increased their degree of confidence, which rose from 61.4 in October to to 64.1, continuing the growth trend observed in the three previous semesters," he affirmed.

According to Castelo Branco, a small decline in this confidence was noted in the case of the large entrepreneurs. "The indicator, which was 68.4 in October, fell to 66.4 in January, narrowing the difference in confidence between large and small entrepreneurs."

Translation: David Silberstein