Agents' Summary of Business Conditions - November 2012

• Growth in demand for consumer goods had picked up very modestly. Gradual growth in spending on consumer services had continued.
• The seasonal pickup in housing market activity had been less than expected.
• Prospects for growth in business investment remained very modest.
• Export growth had slowed further, with weakness in demand reported to have spread further within the euro area.
• Demand for business services had continued to grow at a slow pace.
• Manufacturing output was becoming more affected by weakening international trade prospects.
• Contacts thought that the fall in construction output might have begun to bottom out.
• The Funding for Lending Scheme appeared likely to have a more immediate impact on the availability of residential mortgage lending than on business lending.
• Employment intentions were broadly unchanged, still suggesting that little net job creation was in prospect over the coming six months.
• Capacity utilisation remained a little below normal and there had been only isolated reports of constraints on output.
• Upward pressure on labour costs remained subdued.
• Non-labour input cost inflation continued to slow, assisted by slowing demand in the euro area and in Asia.
• Output price inflation remained weak, particularly for business services.
• Consumer goods price inflation was broadly flat at a moderate rate. Consumer services price inflation had edged up very slightly.

Agents' summary of business conditions - November 2012

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