Agents' Summary of Business Conditions - October 2008

• Consumers’ expenditure contracted during the third quarter.
• The weakening in housing demand continued in September.
• There had been a widespread slowdown in capital spending, primarily reflecting falling capacity constraints and the weaker demand outlook.
• Many firms had also experienced a further tightening in their own credit conditions, according to a special survey carried out this month (see box). But this was still seen to be less critical to investment plans than the outlook for demand.
• Inventories of consumer durables and new cars increased. In other sectors, however, firms had reduced stocks in response to prospective weaker demand and to conserve cash.
• Demand for exports weakened slightly.
• Growth in domestically orientated manufacturing fell and there was further deceleration in services output.
• Employment intentions had fallen sharply and recruitment difficulties had declined.
• Capacity pressures continued to fall.
• Growth in total labour costs remained well contained.
• Annual input price inflation eased slightly, but output price inflation remained elevated.
• Annual consumer price inflation was steady.

Agents' summary of business conditions - October 2008

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