Agents' Summary of Business Conditions - September 2008

• Consumption growth eased reflecting weaker retail sales and consumer services.
• The deceleration in housing demand continued.
•  Investment intentions declined sharply. With regard to credit conditions, the cost of finance rose and availability diminished.
• Inventories of consumer durables increased.
• Demand for exports weakened slightly but was still relatively strong.
• Growth in domestically orientated manufacturing fell and there was further deceleration in construction and services output.
• Labour demand softened and recruitment difficulties eased.
• Capacity pressures continued to fall.
• Growth in total labour costs remained well contained.
• Annual input price inflation and output price inflation remained elevated.
• Annual consumer price inflation was steady.

Agents' summary of business conditions - September 2008

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