Agents' Summary of Business Conditions - August 2005

We regularly publish a summary of reports compiled by our twelve regional Agents following discussions with at least 700 businesses across the UK every reporting period.

Published on 16 August 2005

The value of retail spending may have stabilised, but growth in spending on consumer services has weakened.
Activity has been stable in the housing market, albeit at a much lower level than a year ago. The stock of properties on estate agents’ books remained high.
Export prospects have improved in light of the dollar appreciation against sterling. Import growth weakened further.
Investment intentions fell back a little as firms became more cautious about the outlook for the economy.
Manufacturing output fell due to weaker domestic sales. Export growth has held up.
The pace of construction output growth eased, but was still robust.
Service sector output growth eased, and there were some signs that the weakness in the consumer-facing sectors was starting to have an impact on business services.
Employment intentions and recruitment difficulties have fallen over the past month.
Capacity utilisation was below normal in manufacturing, but above normal in the service sector.
Pay pressures remained muted.
Input price inflation was broadly stable.
Consumer price inflation eased a little.