|
News Index
Next
Previous
Bank of Scotland Business Banking’s quarterly small business economic confidence
survey has revealed the country's entrepreneurs continue to have a positive, if
marginally more cautious, outlook.
Almost nine out of 10 of the country's entrepreneurs believe the performance of
their business will be better or stay the same in the next 12 months, a slight
fall of 3% points since the Bank last reported its quarterly survey in January.
Just over one in eight businesses expect their business to be worse off in 2006.
Three in five small businesses remain confident in the country's economy,
identical to the January figure, but over a third of entrepreneurs believe
general economic conditions will be “worse” in the next 12 months.
After a rise during the last quarter of 2005, there has been a drop in the
number of businesses expecting to invest more in their business in the year
ahead.
A third of small businesses now expect to increase investment over the next 12
months, down slightly from the previous quarter. Nevertheless, over a quarter of
small businesses plan to increase their investment by up to 20% in the next 12
months with a further 7% expecting to invest over 20% more.
Conversely, just over one in eight businesses plan to invest less, up 1% point
from the previous survey.
Increasing staff numbers is part of the business plan for over a fifth of small
businesses over the next 12 months. Whilst this represents a fall of 11% points
since January, just 7% of entrepreneurs believe they will employ fewer staff in
the next 12 months.
Kevin Gillett, head of Bank of Scotland Business Banking, commented: “Whilst
there is some evidence of a more cautious outlook amongst entrepreneurs on
capital investment and recruitment intentions, it's greatly encouraging that
over four out of five fully expect their business to do as well or better in the
year ahead."
Source:
RedAlert
|
