China business confidence index rises for third straight quarter - central bank survey

BEIJING (Reuters) - Business confidence among entrepreneurs in China rose for the third straight quarter in October-December, according to a survey by the People's Bank of China published on Thursday.

The entrepreneurs' confidence index rose to 54.2 percent in the fourth quarter, 3 percentage points higher than in the third quarter, the central bank survey showed.

Another central bank survey showed bankers' confidence rose to 53.7 in the fourth quarter, up 7.2 percentage points from the third quarter.

A survey of urban households showed fewer rated housing prices "unacceptably high" in the fourth quarter versus the previous three months.

The proportion of residents prepared to buy property in the next three months rose to 20.1 percent in the fourth quarter, 3.8 percentage points higher than the previous quarter, the survey showed.

China's home prices rose at a record pace in November, with several dozen cities implementing purchase restrictions in an effort to control prices.

(Reporting by Beijing Monitoring Desk and Elias Glenn; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Richard Borsuk)