![Rise in business confidence revealed in North West PMI survey](https://i0.wp.com/marketingstockport.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Rise-in-business-confidence-revealed-in-North-West-PMI-survey.jpg?resize=780%2C400&ssl=1)
Listen to this article here
|
The latest findings of NatWest’s Regional PMI survey of North West businesses has revealed a second consecutive month of decline in business activity in the region in September 2023.
Amid the sustained downturn in demand for goods and services from North West businesses, employment also fell for the first time in two-and-a-half years. More positively however, business expectations for the coming months continued to improve, while inflationary pressures softened, with firms’ costs and charges rising at the slowest rate since September 2020.
The performance of the North West largely mirrored other regions of the UK, which all saw a decrease in employment. The region’s businesses also experienced a continued decline in the inflow of new business, with only the other Northern regions (the North East and Yorkshire & Humber) seeing steeper falls.
Business confidence in the region, however, has crept back above the UK-wide average. Optimism towards the year-ahead outlook was attributed to marketing plans, new product launches and hopes of a general improvement in economic conditions.
Business costs rose at a slower rate in September. Input price inflation eased notably from the previous month to a three-year low. It also fell below its long-run average and was the second-slowest among the 12 regions monitored by the survey.
Malcolm Buchanan, Chair of NatWest North Regional Board, commented:
“The latest PMI data indicate that a slowdown has set in across the North West economy, with businesses in the region registering back-to-back reductions in activity and a first decrease in employment for more than two-and-a-half years. What we’re seeing is the result of a sustained downturn in demand for goods and services due to high inflation, tighter financial conditions and general uncertainty. Encouragingly, price pressures are subsiding, with local firms reporting the slowest rise in costs for three years and a much weaker rate of increase than the national average, which perhaps explains why business confidence in the region has started to rebound.”