March was a record month for business confidence, with an absolute level that peaked at 105.1: the highest level since January 2016, continuing the recovery trend that began in January. This improvement has involved market-related services and retail sales, but it has also come in the form of an unexpected boost in the manufacturing sector (constituting 40% of the sample weight); at 107.1, this is the index's fourth consecutive increase, reaching levels that haven't been seen since December 2007.

This is the result of uniform progress, regarding both current judgments and future prospects: in both cases, it's a net improvement over past results. It's an optimism that, for business owners, could soon signify an increase in the workforce, with the balance between optimists and pessimists having finally turned positive once again; this balance had plummeted (-27) during the darkest periods of the crisis in 2009.