It was a holiday Monday long weekend in the UK, but its just ticked over to Tuesday and the Confederation of British Industry has released its latest survey results.
Via Reuters:
- CBI's overall business optimism balance - which measures the difference between the percentage of firms who are upbeat and downbeat - sank to its weakest since May 2020, the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, for both consumer and business services.
- "There are slim pickings for those looking for positive signals in the services sector over the last quarter. Just as rising inflation is hurting households and every business sector, the services industry is no different," said Charlotte Dendy, the CBI's head of economic surveys.
- Businesses sharply raised the prices they charged customers, by the most since 2006 in the consumer sector and by the most in more than 20 years for business and professional services companies, but profit margins still shrank, the CBI said.
- The CBI data was based on a survey of 199 firms between July 26 and Aug. 15.
