Business confidence in the North West continued to improve during September, rising by two points to 55%, according to the latest Business Barometer from Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking.
The region’s confidence level continues to remain above the national average.
Companies in the region reported lower confidence in their own business prospects month-on-month, down two points at 58%. However, when taken alongside their optimism in the economy, up five points to 51%, this gives a headline confidence reading of 55%, versus 53% in August.
A net balance of 41% of businesses in the region expect to increase staff levels over the next year, down four points on last month.
Looking ahead to the next six months, North West businesses identified their top target areas for growth as investing in their team, for example by spending more on training (49%), evolving their offering, including introducing new products or services (36%) and introducing new technology (34%).
The Business Barometer, which surveys 1,200 businesses monthly, provides early signals about UK economic trends both regionally and nationwide.
On a national basis, overall UK business confidence in September dipped slightly, to 47%, down from August’s 50%.
Though there was a marginal increase in their own trading prospects – up two points month-on-month to 54% – firms’ confidence in the overall economy dropped nine points to 38%.
The joint-most confident regions in the UK were the West Midlands and London, both reporting overall confidence of 59%. Only Northern Ireland, Wales, London, the South West and North West reported an increase in overall confidence.
Projections for output were mixed across the sectors, with some showing significant changes from previous results.
In construction, the sharp increase last month was largely counteracted by a drop in expectations in September, falling by 12 points to 46%.
Similarly, in manufacturing, trading prospects fell for a second month to 53%, although this figure is still stronger than the year-on-year figure.
However, the falls in manufacturing and construction sectors were more than offset by a small rise in retail and a bigger rise in the dominant service sector.
Chris Whittle, area director in the North West at Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking, said: “It’s great that overall confidence in the North West has risen again, and that it continues to be above the UK average.
“With Make UK and the BDO recently finding that our manufacturing sector – one of the key drivers of our regional economy – continues to be confident, the outlook is looking positive in the North West right now.”