Business confidence among Mainland businesspeople improved in the first quarter of this year, Xinhua reports.

The Chinese government-run news agency quotes a survey by the People’s Bank of China showing the entrepreneur confidence index grew to 61.5 in the first quarter of this year. The final quarter of last year recorded an index of 54.1, and the index stood at 43.7 in the first quarter of last year.

The report cites a second survey from the central bank pointing to a 11.2-percentage point increase in bankers’ confidence in the first quarter of this year to 64.9 percent.

The Mainland economy grew 6.7 percent last year compared to the year before. This year’s target for annual economic growth is about 6.5 percent.