Transport, tourism, petrol stations, and hotel businesses were the most optimistic setors. The TSSI, carried out monthly by the Industry Ministry, gauges small and medium-sized enterprises in terms of their profits, costs, employment rate, turnover and investment.

Anything above 50 points is regarded as healthy sentiment, while anything below is unhealthy.

Owners of small and medium-sized enterprises are showing more confidence in the national economy and their own businesses. Subsets of the larger index, confidence in the former increased by 10.9 points to 43.6, while the latter rose from 34.6 to

43.1.

Chitraporn Taechachan, director of the Office of Small and Medium Enterprise Promotion, yesterday said the transport industry was the only sector to show a promising 51.3, slightly above the healthy median. The decreased oil price contributed to the surge in confidence.

Tourism experienced the highest leap of confidence, from 39 points to 49.3, largely because October was the first month of the tourism high season, with a large number of inbound tourists.

Other noteworthy increases are in the petrol-station business, rising from 43.1 to 49.3. The hospitality sector rose by 9.9 points to 49.0.

Chitraporn expects confidence on all boards to level out to 53.6. She hopes that this will serve as a positive indicator that the economy is recovering.

The September TSSI figure was 37.8 points, with agribusiness suffering the most.