CONFIDENCE in British business has hit its highest level since March, indicating any jitters after the Brexit vote were largely unfounded.
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The latest Business barometer survey, carried out by the high street bank Lloyd’s, has shown that UK business confidence has risen by seven per cent to 39 per cent, it’s highest point since March this year.
The figures show that the lost ground in the immediate aftermath of the European Union referendum has only had a short-term effect when confidence initially plummeted due to the uncertainty after the country voted to leave Brussels.
Analysts at the bank also indicated that uncertainty over the outcome of the US presidential election is likely to have had a negative effect.
The Lloyd’s bank report showed that nearly half of companies, 47 per cent, were more optimistic about the economy overall, an increase of 12 per cent from last month.
Conversely the percentage of companies that were less optimistic fell by four percent to 17 per cent.
Just over half of businesses remained positive about their future prospects, at 51 per cent, which was a fall of four per cent month-on-month.
But only four per cent of firms said they were more pessimistic about the future.
Over the entire final quarter of the calendar year, 45 per cent of firms indicated that they were confident about the future which was a huge increase compared to the third quarter when it was at just 27 per cent.
However, the bank indicated some troubling trends, saying that the number of firms expecting to hire new staff had fallen to just 22 per cent, it’s lowest point since February.
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Those companies saying they expected to cut staff in the future rose by three points to seven per cent.
Lloyds Bank Senior Economist Hann-Ju Ho said: “Although significant uncertainties lie ahead, for now, economic optimism in our December survey has recovered near to levels seen at the start of the year.
“In addition, confidence this year had held up much better than it did during the global financial crisis.”
