China's entrepreneur confidence index dipped 8.3 points to 134.8 in the second quarter from the same period last year, said the National Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday.
The index, a gauge of the understanding, views and projections of entrepreneurs, was 5.8 points lower than that in the first quarter.
"The entrepreneurs' weaker confidence mirrors the current macro-economic condition, as growth is slowing down," said Guosen Securities analyst Lin Songli. "It also shows their anticipation of future developments."
The figure followed Monday's release of China's business climate index, a key gauge of corporate performance, which dropped8.6 points to 137.4 points in the second quarter from the same 2007 period.
Deputy Director Cai Zhizhou of China Center for National Accounting and Economic Growth, Peking University, attributed the climate index drop to rising costs of land, labor and energy resources, plus tightened credit.
The value of China's exports in the first five months rose 22.9percent from the same period last year. The growth rate was 4.9 percentage points lower than that of the first five months of last year.
The growth rate of urban fixed-asset investment in January-May also fell 0.3 percentage points year on year.
Social service sectors, such as banking, insurance, water and power supply, saw the biggest slip in entrepreneur confidence in the second quarter. Lodging and eatery industries posted the second biggest slump.
Entrepreneurs in mining sectors were the most confident, with their index at 169 points, followed by the information and software businessmen.
Meanwhile, entrepreneurs in the real estate industry posted the lowest confidence index of 118.4 points.
Those in large-sized enterprises had more confidence than those in small and medium-sized ones, with the indices for them standing at 149.9, 125.3 and 118 points respectively.
The figures were based on a survey of 19,500 companies nationwide.
