Agents' Summary of Business Conditions - February 2014

• Growth in retail sales values in the past three months on a year earlier had been little changed, though consumer services turnover growth had edged higher.
• Housing market activity had continued to strengthen across the country.
• Investment intentions were strengthening gradually.
• Annual growth in business services turnover had been little changed.
• Manufacturing output growth for the domestic market had risen further, while growth in manufactured exports values had remained steady.
• Construction growth had increased a little further, following a sharp pickup through 2013.
• Credit availability had continued to improve gradually across the corporate sector, including for smaller companies.
• Employment intentions had increased a little, indicating expectations of modest headcount growth across the economy over the next six months. Recruitment difficulties had ticked up and were marginally above normal.
• Capacity utilisation had edged higher in manufacturing on the month and, overall, was close to normal levels.
• Growth in labour costs per employee had edged higher, but remained moderate.
• Inflation in materials costs and imported finished goods prices had fallen in recent months.
• Output price inflation had been little changed, remaining subdued. Profitability had continued to improve across manufacturing and services, though remained below normal.
• Consumer price inflation had eased slightly further.

Agents' summary of business conditions - February 2014

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