British business confidence stumbles further

Following accountancy firm KPMG’s latest quarterly business confidence survey, 81 per cent of senior executives polled indicated that they believed the economy has not yet hit rock bottom and will get worse before it gets better.

The latest figures represent a marketable fall over the last three months as previously 60 percent of respondents indicated that the economic outlook was poor.

The latest figures from KPMG supplement the gloom that was announced today by the Engineering Employers Federation who warned of 140,000 manufacturing job losses.

Similarly a survey by BDO Stoy Hayward has warned today that 320,000 jobs could be at risk over the next three months, although somewhat surprisingly the organisation’s optimism index has risen for the first time in over a year.

According to Craig Anderson, head of KPMG in Scotland, there are some positives that can be taken from the survey as only 16 percent of respondents believed that the current economic downturn will last for two years or longer

The greatest comfort can be found in the outlook of British exporters, although as only 1 in 10 businesses believe we have hit rock bottom, the gloomy outlook is set to continue and despite the fall in the value of the pound it seems as though the lack of availability of credit will be the biggest problem in restructuring.

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