The confidence of Chinese entrepreneurs in the domestic macro economy had picked up, as the entrepreneurs confidence index reached 68.4 percent in the second quarter this year, 7.2 percentage points higher from the first quarter, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said Tuesday.

The entrepreneurs confidence index, which measured the sentiments of entrepreneurs on the macro economy, was 7.5 percentage points higher than the fourth quarter of last year, said the central bank in a survey report released on its Web site Tuesday.

The report also showed that the bankers confidence index topped 40 percent in the second quarter, 14.4 percentage points higher from the first quarter.

Chinese banks lent a record 7.37 trillion yuan (1.08 trillion U.S. dollars) in the first half to shore up the economy.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao at the weekend reiterated that the government would stick to its proactive fiscal policy and moderately easy monetary policy for sustained growth, as a stable and a steady growth remained the top priority of the country.

The survey revealed that urban citizens' confidence index for owning stock shares rose from 18.6 percent in the first quarter to 52.3 percent in the second quarter, showing investors' heartened confidence, according to the PBOC.

Chinese benchmark Shanghai Composite Index has advanced 85.8 percent as of Monday to 3435.21 points since the beginning of this year, boosted by signs of the recovery for the world's third largest economy.

For sales prices, the index on the basis of a survey targeted at 5,000 industrial firms nationwide, rose from a negative 15.6 percent in the first quarter to a negative 8.9 percent in the second quarter.

The per capita disposable income of Chinese city dwellers rose 9.8 percent year on year to 8,856 yuan in the first six months. Deducting price factors, the increase reached 11.2 percent, according to Monday figures from the National Bureau of Statistics.

The PBOC said that the per capita disposable income of Chinese urban citizens in the second quarter rose 1.8 percent from the figure of the first quarter.

(Xinhua News Agency July 28, 2009)