UK Business Confidence Hits Lowest Level in 21 Years

Accountancy firm BDO, which published the survey, said it suggests the economy will struggle to grow in the first quarter of this year.

That is despite signs of improvement in the labour market, it said, with firms intending to hire more staff.

The survey gauges optimism in business performance and the economy over the next six months.

BDO’s Optimism Index fell to 88.9 in January, well below the score of 95 needed to indicate growth.

That is the lowest level recorded since the survey was launched in 1992.

Peter Hemington, a partner at BDO, said the findings suggested businesses were becoming used to the lack of sustained growth in the UK economy.

via BBC

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Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza