China business confidence index rises in the first-quarter - cbank survey

BEIJING (Reuters) - Business confidence among entrepreneurs in China improved in the first quarter of 2017 from the fourth quarter last year, according to a survey by the People's Bank of China published on Tuesday.

Another central bank survey showed bankers' confidence also rose in the first quarter, though 20.3 percent of bankers believe monetary policy was "relatively tight" in the Jan-March period, up 14.6 percentage point from the fourth quarter.

In another central bank survey, 52.2 percent of urban households believed housing prices were "unacceptably high" in the first quarter, and 27.2 percent of households expect housing prices to rise in the second quarter this year.

(Reporting by Beijing Monitoring Desk; Editing by Kim Coghill)