UK Business Barometer (October 2024): Business optimism persists
According to the last Business Barometer from Lloyds Bank, the overall confidence index in October indicates that the prospects of British businesses remain high despite a modest decline from the previous month.
Lloyds Bank has published today its monthly Business Barometer report, a proprietary survey of 1,200 companies which provides a view of the confidence levels among UK businesses.
This is a summary of the most relevant insights of the October 2024 edition:
- Lloyds Bank’s overall confidence index reached 44% at the end of October.
- Firms’ trading prospects eased this month after rising in September, with the net balance down three points to 53%.
- Net hiring intentions grew marginally in October despite the dip in overall business confidence.
- Regarding pricing levels, the net balance for firms’ own price expectations fell four points to 61%, partially reversing last month’s increase.
- Of particular note at a regional level is the steep increase in confidence in the North East (+21pp to 63%).
- At a sector level, output expectations in construction rose 4pp to 50%.
The original report is available on the Lloyds Bank website (see below).
Sources:
Lloyds Bank, 28 October 2024. Business Barometer – October 2024. [Online]
Available at: https://www.lloydsbank.com/assets/assets-business-banking/pdfs/business-barometer.pdf
[Accessed 28 October 2024].
Credits and license: Bizuking wrote this news post about Lloyds Bank’s “Business Barometer – October 2024”. The image accompanying the post has been produced by Bizuking. Bizuking licenses this post under the terms of the Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0 license. The report “Business Barometer – October 2024” is the property of Lloyds Bank and is subject to the owner’s copyright and terms and conditons, that can be accessed on its website.