The Sheffield City Region Quarterly Economic Review (QER) brings together results completed by regional businesses. The results are used to influence local, regional and national governments and decision- makers and help shape the support structures available to the regional business community.
Quarterly
QER.Q4 2018
Economic Review
Results show that businesses are facing challenging times
T
he results of the Quarterly Economic Review for the Sheffield City Region (SCR), in the fourth quarter of 2018, show that these remain challenging times for businesses across the city region,
with some wavering of business confidence amid ongoing uncertainty surrounding Brexit. In terms of key results, over the past three months sales balances,
while remaining positive overall, have declined for both sectors compared to the previous quarter. Looking forward, balances in relation to firms’ order books while also still in positive territory, are down from the previous quarter for manufacturers with only a slight improvement for service sector firms. Confidence balances for firms in both sectors have declined from the previous quarter, with the fall particularly pronounced among manufacturers where we see historically low levels of confidence for this survey. In general, the picture for manufacturers and service sector firms is
somewhat divergent, with some more encouraging indicators for the latter but fewer positive results for the former. Firms in both sectors, on balance, expect prices to rise over the next three months; meanwhile, there is little change from the previous quarter in terms of investment plans. Businesses in both sectors, on balance, expanded their workforces
during this quarter, albeit there was a sharp decline in this result for manufacturers from the previous quarter. Firms in both sectors expect, on balance, to hire next quarter, although this result was also less strong among manufacturers compared to the previous quarter. The picture among exporters largely mirrors that for all businesses in the city region, including more depressed confidence figures among exporting manufacturers. With the UK’s departure from the EU imminent, the hot topic for this
quarter was Brexit and the perceptions and preparations of businesses in the SCR for it. The results indicate that so far only a minority of firms in both sectors have made any special arrangements for Brexit, with such efforts more likely among manufacturers. While some firms feel prepared for Brexit, whatever eventuality, the largest proportion feel neither prepared nor unprepared reflecting the ongoing uncertainty surrounding it. Finally, and again reflecting this uncertainty, few firms in either sector felt informed about the likely implications of Brexit for them, with most identifying as either uninformed, or neither informed nor uninformed.
Dr. David Littlewood Senior Lecturer in Strategic Management Sheffield University Management School Centre for Regional Economic and Enterprise Development (CREED)
Dr. David Littlewood Winter 2019 CHAMBERconnect 45
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