Agents' Summary of Business Conditions - December 2005

• Growth in the value of consumer spending may have picked up a little, but the underlying picture remained subdued.
• Activity continued to edge up in the housing market; prices were flat.
• Growth in exports continued. Imports also rose, despite weaker imports of consumer goods.
• Investment intentions eased slightly.
• The level of domestic manufacturing sales may have stabilised.
• Construction output growth remained lower than a year ago.
• Business services growth was robust; there was a small rise in consumer services growth.
• The labour market softened again.
• Capacity pressures eased.
• There was little sign of any upward pressure on pay.
• Overall, input price inflation eased back. But wholesale gas prices increased markedly.
• Consumer price inflation edged lower.

Agents' summary of business conditions - December 2005

• Agents' scores (xlsx)
• Definitions for the Agents’ scores
• Response to consultation on changes to Agents' scores