Northern Ireland’s business confidence rises more quickly than in GB

Savanta’s MarketVue Business Confidence Index for Northern Ireland reveals a significant improvement in business confidence this quarter, with a rise from 37 in Q1 2023 to 47 in Q2 2023. This follows a notable increase from 33 in Q4 2022 to 37 in Q1 2023. A very positive sign for the NI economy.

Indeed, our data shows that NI Business confidence is rising more quickly than in GB, where confidence remained relatively stable during this period. In fact, NI business confidence now surpasses what we found in Great Britain.

No doubt announcements during fieldwork that Northern Ireland was likely to avoid recession and the falls in inflation seen month on month this year will have had a positive impact. Nevertheless, it is important to remember that businesses crave stability, and factors such as inflation, labour costs, and interest rates will still be on many businesses’ minds.

It’s hard to predict the rest of the year, but we feel momentum is building and expect confidence to rise again as the year draws out.

Download our Northern Ireland infographic for a snapshot of the findings.

About Market Vue Business Confidence

Quarter findings are from Savanta’s Market Vue Business Confidence. The survey was conducted between 29th March 2023 – 23rd June 2023 and included 331 NI businesses of various sizes. Indices are mean scores based on a scale of ‘extremely positive’ (100), ‘fairly positive’ (75), ‘neither positive nor negative’ (50), ‘fairly negative’ (25) and ‘extremely negative’ (0), for the question “How do you feel about the current health of the UK economy?”

For more information get in touch or contact us at [email protected].

Suggested reading:

• Business confidence up marginally as businesses ‘wait and see’
• Northern Ireland’s Business Confidence continues to climb and is now almost identical to GB’s
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