Up to 85 per cent of firms have an optimistic outlook for the business environment in Q4, whereas 15 per cent are pessimistic about the future, according to a survey conducted by the General Statistics Office (GSO).

The survey found that 44.9 per cent of firms expect new orders from customers to increase in Q3, whereas 13.8 per cent forecast the opposite.

The order indicator in the non-State sector was estimated at 31.6 per cent, in the FDI sector at 30.8 per cent and in the State sector at 26.4 per cent.

It is worth noting that 20.2 per cent of firms expect a higher number of employees on the payroll in Q3, whereas 9.3 per cent believe the number would fall.

The GSO said that high demand for construction materials, coupled with China's falling steel output and exports, led to surging domestic steel prices.

Petrol prices had fueled the situation by causing an increase in the prices of other materials, driving up construction costs.

The GSO called on the Government to take drastic measures to stabilise material prices, speed up construction projects and help firms access State capital more easily.

The survey covers 6,500 firms in the processing and manufacturing sector and 6,799 in the construction sector. In Q2, it had 5,635 respondents from the former and 6,315 from the latter. — VNS