The volume of business/output in the manufacturing, import & export trade, banks, financing & insurance, real estate, business services and telecommunications sectors is expected to go up in the second quarter.

This was the finding of the Quarterly Business Tendency Survey conducted by the Census & Statistics Department from late March to early April.

However, the volume of business/output in the construction, wholesale and retail, restaurants and hotels, transport and related service sectors is expected to fall over the same period.

The Census & Statistics Department said that in this type of survey of expectations, the views are affected by the events in the community occurring at the time of enumeration.

This round of the survey was conducted when the SARS situation was changing continuously. This factor should be taken into account in interpreting the survey results.