Business confidence among entrepreneurs in China fell in the year’s first quarter from the final quarter of 2014, for a fifth consecutive quarter of decline, a central bank survey showed.

The survey of entrepreneurs, bankers and households by the People’s Bank of China came amid growing concerns about a protracted slowdown in China’s economy and deflation worries.

It found the entrepreneur confidence index fell to 59.2 per cent in the first quarter, down 1.8 percentage points from the previous quarter.

A central bank survey of bankers showed 54.7 per cent of them believed the world’s second-largest economy was cooling, up 5.9 percentage points from the fourth quarter of last year.

Current monetary policy measures are appropriate, 74.8 per cent of the bankers believe, a fall of 2.4 percentage points from the fourth quarter.

A separate survey showed 48.8 per cent of households rated consumer prices “unacceptably high” in the first quarter, down 4.1 percentage points from last year’s final quarter.

Among households, 51.9 per cent saw housing prices as unacceptably high in the first quarter, down 6.9 percentage points from the previous quarter.

Weighed down by a property downturn, factory overcapacity and local debt, China’s economic growth is expected to slow to a quarter-century low of around seven per cent this year from 7.4 per cent in 2014, even with expected additional stimulus measures.