CONFIDENCE among Scottish small businesses is at its highest since 2015, a survey published today reveals, with better times for the oil and gas sector and tourism providers’ high hopes for summer cited as possible reasons.
The survey by the Federation of Small Businesses in Scotland signals that its members, for the first time since 2015, expect conditions will improve rather than deteriorate.
The FSB’s small business confidence index, a weighted measure of business confidence about future conditions, has risen to +5.1 points in the second quarter from -17.8 in the preceding three months. This was the first positive reading since the fourth quarter of 2015.
The FSB’s UK-wide small business confidence index has also climbed over the last three months, from +6 points to +12.9 points. However, it noted the gap between Scotland and the UK as a whole in terms of small firms’ optimism was now at its narrowest since the second quarter of 2014.
FSB Scotland policy chair Andrew McRae said: “For the first time in years, Scottish smaller firms are quietly confident about business prospects. As a consequence, the average Scottish firm is now almost as positive about the future as the average UK business. The reason for this change is difficult to pinpoint – though anecdote suggests that tourism firms are expecting a bumper summer and those involved in oil and gas are facing kinder trading conditions.”
The survey signals a sharp overall decline in profits for Scotland’s small businesses in the second quarter. A less-steep fall is anticipated in the coming three months. The pace of decline in overall employment among Scotland’s small businesses slowed in the second quarter.
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