Business sentiment quarterly survey - sentiment February 2011

Ibec members are now much more positive about both their current business conditions and the outlook for their businesses over the coming three months. The three-month outlook strengthened from +7 in the final quarter of last year to +19 in the current quarter. Understandably, given ongoing concerns around public finances and banking, the majority of businesses remain less confident in relation to the wider economic environment. The overall business confidence indicator remained negative at -23 in Q1, but this was an improvement from -32 in the final quarter of last year.