Manufacturers' confidence soars
Business optimism improved in the latest three months to its highest level in more than a year with manufacturers' confidence leaping ahead, a survey signalled on Monday.
The Institute of Directors said its balance of company bosses who were more optimistic about their business outlook compared with three months ago rose to 35 percent from 29 percent in the previous three months.
That was the highest for five quarters.
Within the headline reading, manufacturing companies were at their most upbeat in almost two years, with that balance surging to 34 percent from just 5 percent in the IoD's previous survey.
The balance of directors saying their company was performing well rose to 77 percent from 66 percent. The manufacturing sub-index for performance jumped to 79 percent from 60 percent.
IoD, which surveyed 500 of its members, said the results provided guarded optimism over the manufacturing outlook.
"We recognise there have been false dawns before, but the good news now is that confidence and performance have surged together. This hasn't happened over recent years," said IoD Chief Economist Graeme Leach.
The survey follows official data last week showing a resurgence in industrial output in the first quarter underpinned overall economic growth, making up for lacklustre retail sales.
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