Agents' Summary of Business Conditions - November 2008

• Contacts painted a weak picture of most aspects of economic activity, with further reductions in the Agents’ scores from the low levels reported last month.
• Demand for consumer services continued to shrink, and retail sales values were broadly unchanged relative to a year earlier.
• Investment intentions had been further reduced, with an increasing number of contacts citing tighter financing conditions as a factor in their decisions over and above the outlook for demand.
• Manufacturing output for domestic sales fell and a range of construction and business service activities also contracted.
• Growth in export orders had slowed sharply — after having been broadly stable across much of the year.
• Employment intentions were scaled back further across all sectors.
• Growth in labour costs remained subdued, with most contacts expecting next year’s pay rises to be no larger than this year’s.
• Annual input and output price inflation eased slightly.
• Retail goods and service price inflation also eased amidst reports of increased promotional activity.

Agents' summary of business conditions - November 2008

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