Charge changes: About 10% of respondents in the transport sector expect service charges in this year's first quarter to rise, while 18% anticipate a fall.

According to the department's Quarterly Business Tendency Survey for the first quarter of 2006, covering about 560 prominent establishments in different sectors here, more respondents expect their business situation to be better, as compared to those who expect it to be worse.

Analysed by sector, 47% of the respondents in the real-estate sector and 39% in the banks, financing and insurance sector expect their business situation to be better, as compared to 2% and 1% who expect it to be worse.

The number of respondents expecting a rise the volume of business or output is higher than those expecting a dip in almost all sectors. However, in the construction and restaurants and hotels sectors, the number of respondents expecting the volume of business or output to increase is the same as those expecting a fall, with 66% and 52% believing the volume of business or output will remain unchanged.

In the banks, financing and insurance sector, there are significantly more respondents who expect their volume of business to rise, representing 51% of the respondents in the sector. Only 4% expect their volume of business to drop.

On employment, more respondents in all sectors expect it to increase in this year's first quarter. Analysed by sector, all respondents in the banks, financing and insurance sectors expect their employment to grow or remain the same. The real estate sector also sees significantly more respondents expecting a surge in their employment.

The survey revealed respondents in most sectors expect selling prices or service charges to go up in this year's first quarter. However, 19% of the respondents in the import and export trade, 18% of those in transport and related services, and 14% of those in communications sectors anticipated their selling prices or service charges would fall, three to 13 percentage points higher than those expecting a rise.