State of the Region 2013: UK economic confidence returning but global concerns remain

ONGOING issues in the eurozone remain at the forefront of business leader’s minds, our State of the Region survey has found.

Away from global issues, the majority of respondents believe growth for the UK economy will be flat or negligible.

A further 17% believe that confidence is returning but that growth will be slow and only 10 think things will get worse before they get better.

Inflation is expected to remain flat by the majority (53%) and 69% of people say they expect bank lending to remain static.

TheBusinessDesk.com’s annual State of the Region survey gives a barometer of business sentiment across Yorkshire, the North West and West Midlands.

TheBusinessDesk.com has once again run this milestone project in association with lead sponsor, law firm DLA Piper. The initiative is also supported by Yorkshire Bank and the CBI.

STATE OF THE REGION 2013: DOWNLOAD AN IN-DEPTH REPORT OF THE FINDINGS HERE

Andrew Dyson, partner in DLA Piper’s intellectual property and technology team in Leeds, said: “The survey points to the Eurozone crisis as the greatest threat to the fragile world economy in the coming year, with two thirds of respondents identifying it as their primary concern.

“However at a domestic level, where almost half of respondents last year felt the situation would worsen before it improved, just 10% reported this opinion again this year. Instead, the number who felt that confidence is returning doubled on last year, despite over half still believing that economic growth in the UK will be negligible.
 
“Regionally, more than a third of businesses surveyed believe that the most important factor in restoring confidence in the regional economy is for the banks to lend more. However, few expect to see this materialise, with more than two thirds predicting that bank lending will remain the same.”

Tomorrow: The regional findings compared