Agents' Summary of Business Conditions - August 2013

• Annual growth in the value of consumer spending had remained moderate. There were signs of increasing consumer confidence, though disposable incomes had remained tight.
• Activity in the housing market had picked up further in recent months.
• Investment intentions had continued to point to only modest growth in capital spending.
• Growth in manufacturing output had been unchanged for the domestic market, though it had increased a little for exports.
• Sentiment in business services had improved further, alongside continued growth in turnover.
• Construction output had strengthened, as house building had increased over recent months.
• Corporate credit availability had continued to improve gradually.
• Employment intentions pointed to a slight increase in staffing over the coming six months.
• Capacity utilisation had remained slightly below normal both in manufacturing and services, though the margin of spare capacity in services had narrowed a little.
• The annual rate of growth in labour costs per employee had been little changed.
• Annual growth in materials costs had remained subdued and moderate inflation in imported finished goods prices had continued.
• Inflation in manufacturers’ output prices had edged lower and had remained very subdued for business services prices.
• The rate of consumer price inflation had been unchanged.

Agents' summary of business conditions - August 2013

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