North West businesses remain more optimistic than national average, finds Lloyds Bank Business Barometer survey

Business confidence nationwide fell in June, according to the most recent Business Barometer survey from Lloyds Bank, although North West firms are more optimistic than the UK average.

The survey of 1,200 companies across the UK saw overall business confidence drop nine percentage points to 41%.

Northern regions, however, bucked the trend with the Yorkshire & Humber and North East seeing small rises in business confidence, while businesses in the North West reported a smaller decline, and remaining more positive in their outlook than the national average at 43%.

Jenny France, area director in the North West at Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking, said:

“Despite a dip in confidence, North West businesses remain resilient. It’s particularly encouraging to see this in firms’ outlook over their own trading prospects, which were the second strongest in the country after London.”

Lloyds’ Business Barometer survey also found differences in outlook between sectors, with business confidence falling across both construction and services sector business. Manufacturing sector firms, meanwhile, grew in their optimism for future trading in June with confidence rising two points to 51%.

Despite the declines in confidence, other measures of economic outlook for businesses proved robust. 53% of businesses reported stronger output expectations, with only 9% anticipating a dip in sales. On hiring intentions, nearly half of all businesses surveyed saying they expect their workforce to increase in the next 12 month. There was also a small fall in the number of businesses expecting to increase prices in the coming year.

Hann-Ju Ho, senior economist at the bank, said:

“These results suggest a slight drop in business confidence in June as firms’ trading outlook and economic optimism fell below levels seen in recent months. However, these results are still broadly in line with the positive readings we were seeing towards the start of the year.

“Fewer businesses indicated that their prices would increase in the next few months, which chimes with last week’s fall in inflation figures. Meanwhile, there was a mixed set of results seen across the sectors, but following last month’s increase, confidence fell in construction as well as retail and services.”