According with the opinions expressed in the October 2017 Investment Survey (with an inquiring period between the 1st October 2017 and the 17th January 2018) the entrepreneurial investment is expected to present a nominal increase of 3.7% in 2018. This survey also points to an increase of 5.5% in 2017, which represents a slight upward revision comparing with the perspectives revealed in the previous survey (change rate of 5.1%) and a more significant revision comparing with the first estimate for 2017 obtained in the October 2016 survey (3.8%).
Among the investment objectives, between 2017 and 2018, the relative weight of the extension of the production capacity investment is expected to increase, while the relative weights of replacement investment and the investment for other purposes are expected to decrease and the streamline production investment relative importance is expected to remain unchanged. The replacement investment will continue to stand as the most mentioned investment objective, despite the decrease of its relative weight between 2017 and 2018.
Regarding the main limitative factor for business investment identified in the survey, the deterioration of the sales perspectives was the most mentioned in both years, followed, in 2017, by the uncertainty about the investment profitability and, in 2018, by the lack of self-funding capacity. Between 2017 and 2018 the relative weight of the lack of self-funding capacity is expected to increase while the relative importance of the difficulty in obtaining bank loans will decrease.