CONFIDENCE among the region’s accountants has dropped to the lowest level for more than two years.
The UK Business Confidence Monitor, produced by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales with Grant Thornton, shows confidence stands at -10.5.
That is down from -6.4 in the third quarter, and means the figure is at its lowest level since the second quarter of 2009, when the UK was still in recession.
Confidence has fallen for two successive quarters as the global economic outlook remains weak.
The confidence figure is derived by asking hundreds of chartered accountants how confident they are in their business’s prospects on a scale of -100 to 100 – with a negative figure showing someone was less confident than they were a year ago.
North West businesses polled said the turnover had grown by an average of 2.7% over the last 12 months, unchanged from Q3 2011.
But annual growth in gross profits fell from 3.1% over the 12 months to Q3 to 1.9% over the 12 months to date.
