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Belgium's business confidence weakened in April to its lowest level in 19 months, the National Bank of Belgium said Wednesday.
The business confidence indicator dropped to -3.2 from -0.7 in March. Economists had expected the reading to remain unchanged.
Confidence deteriorated in manufacturing and construction, while morale improved for a second consecutive month in trade. Marginal improvement in sentiment was witnessed in the business services sector.
The weakening of confidence in manufacturing was mainly due to a decline in all components of the indicator, particularly the appraisal of total order books.
The bank also reported that the capacity utilization in the manufacturing industry fell in the April quarter to 80.1 percent from 81 percent in January.
