YEREVAN, February 18. /ARKA/. Armenia’s business environment index for the fourth quarter of 2014 fell by 0.8 percentage points to 51.8 compared to Q3, the press office of the Central Bank of Armenia reports.

At the same time, the index dropped by 0.4 percentage points compared to the same period of the year before.

The central bank says the index is within the stable range, and positive sentiments are maintained in almost all economic fields, according to the report.

The index was influenced by changes of the respective indicators, including industry, trade and services. In particular, industry indicator fell by 2.8 percentage points to 55.5; trade index dropped by 11.4p.p to 48.8 and the services index rose by 9.6 p.p. to 63.8.

The lowest index was recorded for the construction sector – 34.6, a negligible increase of 0.5 p.p., still below the stable range.

Business environment index is calculated based on averaged assessments of economic condition and risk changes by organizations. In 2014 the central bank reviewed the methodology of the calculation and merged business environment and business activity indices together into one index of business environment.

Since the beginning of 2005 the central bank has been conducting quarterly polls among non-financial and financial organizations and households. –0--