Our quarterly economic survey feeds into the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) survey which is the UK’s largest and longest running independent business survey with over 5000 participants.
The QES is acknowledged by Bank of England as being of great help in getting the views of business. Every three months, we ask the local business community to share their views on areas such as sales forecasting, recruitment, cashflow, investment and business confidence. Around 200 Staffordshire businesses complete the survey each quarter.
Headline results from Q2, 2023:
• Less than half (45%) of UK firms expect their prices to increase in the next three months, down from 55% in Q1.
• Labour costs are the biggest driver of price rises, cited by 68% of businesses.
• Domestic sales, cashflow, turnover and profitability indicators all remain largely unchanged from Q1.
• Less than half of firms now plan to raise prices in the next three months as cost pressures ease.
• Main factor for increasing costs is now coming from wages rather than utility bills or raw materials.
• Inflationary pressures continue to ease, but still remain the top concern.
The next QES will launch in August, and we would really value your input to grow the response rate from our county. It takes about two minutes to fill out the survey. You will get notification of the next survey by email and in Daily Focus.
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