In Quarter 2, the outlook of companies in all sectors and locations across Norfolk, indicated that for many businesses growth was static at best, and at worst, beginning to slow.
The Norfolk services sector saw domestic activity, employment and investment results weaken and the manufacturing sector saw export sales and orders falling. Both sectors reported concerns over raw material costs and pay settlements and confidence in future turnover decreased.
Has your overall business confidence improved in this quarter or has continued economic uncertainty continued to hamper you?
Has your company increased its sales and orders, either at home or overseas? Are you looking to recruit more staff, or invest in plant and machinery?
It is more important than ever that as many Norfolk businesses as possible complete the survey, so have your say now. Today (Monday 21 August 2017) is the first day of the fieldwork period for the Q3 Quarterly Economic Survey (QES).
The QES is the largest independent business survey in the UK and is used by both the Bank of England and the Chancellor of the Exchequer to plan the future of the UK economy. It is also closely watched by the International Monetary Fund.
You can have your say by completing the QES online NOW, which takes less than 3 minutes. The completion deadline for this survey is midnight on Monday 12 June 2017.
Some key Norfolk findings in the previous Q2 2017 survey:
- Manufacturers report continued pressure from the price of raw materials, with +82 reporting this as the cause of price increases (up from +68).
- Pressure from pay settlements also rose in both, rising from +20 to +27 in manufacturing and +21 to +49 in services
- The manufacturing sector reported increased domestic sales – rising slightly from +9 to +12, as did domestic orders from +6 to +10. Export sales fell from +17 to +11 and export orders fell from +20 to +7
- In the service sector, domestic sales remained static and domestic orders fell from +13 to +8. The balance reporting increasing export sales rose from +6 to +13 but export orders fell from +4 to 0
- The balance of manufacturers confident that turnover would improve over the next 12 months fell from +35 to +23, and the balance for services from +42 to +31
