Increase in SMB Confidence in Q2 2010: Bibby Industry Index

According to the latest Business Factors Index from Bibby Financial Services in spite of the fact that the business turnover has declined since the first quarter of 2010, the confidence of the UK businesses has continued to improve during Q2 of 2010.

The quarterly performance of business turnover across the UK reached the highest level for 2 years at 108.1 points tracked by the Index in March 2010.

The Index reveals:

  • More than two-thirds, which constitutes 72 percent of small and medium-sized businesses gave a positive response on asking about the improvement in their businesses compared to 63 percent in Q1.
  • 17 percent small and medium-sized firms said that their business was either doing well and were actually benefited from the recession or it was never in better shape, in the previous Index there was an increase from 10 percent.
  • Around 21 percent of business managers and owners have found the market very difficult and are just surviving. The figure was down slightly from 24 percent.
  • As per 20 percent of respondents when asked about what would help the recovery come sooner, 28 percent of all businesses identified the loosening of lending criteria followed by decreasing VAT back to 15 percent.