Firm optimism

A recent CBI/RDA survey of Regional Economic Trends revealed that firms are optimistic that strong growth in demand and output will continue, helping them rebuild profit margins.

Over the past 12 months demand and output have grown robustly, and businesses expect the growth to strengthen over the coming year. This has lifted optimism about the business environment and firms hope that profit margins, which have been under pressure from energy and other costs, will improve further.

Price increases were the fastest in the survey’s four year history, and a balance of 23 per cent of businesses said that prices had gone up over the past 12 months and 26 per cent expect to see this continue over the coming 12 months. The south west saw the strongest price rises at 28 per cent followed by Scotland and the east, both showing a 27 per cent rise. London and Scotland are expected to see the highest price rises over coming months at 32 per cent.