Highlights:
• 83% of respondents are optimistic or very optimistic about their business prospects for the next 12 months. This is up from 77% reported last quarter and 73% reported in November 2022. This gives confidence in the regional economy to navigate challenges by political and economic uncertainty.
• Optimism is backed up with expected growth in revenue for the next 12 months with 41% reporting they expect to grow by more than 20% - this is up from 30% in the last quarter and therefore evidences optimism. Overall 78% of our respondents said they were anticipating to grow in the next 12 months.
• Members are hiring staff with 58% saying they have plans to hire in the next 12 months, and nearly a quarter (24%) saying they will increase their overall headcount by more than 20%. These are broadly in line with our findings last quarter.
• In this survey we asked about members plans to raise external finance to fund their growth plans and found that 40% of respondents said they were planning to raise finance – of which 28% will do so in the next 12 months.