Agents' Summary of Business Conditions - November 2014

• Growth in retail sales values and consumer services turnover had eased.
• Housing market activity had shown little sign of a significant pickup after its summer slowdown, although it had remained higher than a year ago.
• Investment intentions for the next twelve months had remained consistent with moderate growth overall, and had eased for manufacturing.
• Business services turnover growth had remained relatively strong and broad-based across subsectors.
• Manufacturing output growth for the domestic market had eased slightly. Manufacturing export growth had slowed further.
• Construction output growth had remained robust and had continued to broaden out beyond house building.
• Corporate credit conditions had continued to improve.
• Employment intentions had eased for business and consumer services, but overall remained consistent with modest headcount growth.
• Recruitment difficulties had been unchanged, remaining somewhat above normal. Staff churn had picked up.
• Capacity utilisation had remained close to normal levels. Conditions had tightened in the service sector but had eased slightly for manufacturers.
• Growth in total labour costs per employee had remained steady, reflecting modest growth in pay settlements but with some increased wage pressures in subsectors with skills shortages.
• Other than for construction goods, most materials costs had continued to fall on a year earlier. Imported finished goods price inflation had remained negative.
• Output price inflation had remained subdued, particularly for manufacturing companies. Profitability growth had been steady for services but had edged lower for manufacturers.
• Consumer price inflation had remained modest. Price inflation had weakened for retail goods and had remained broadly flat for retail services.

Agents' Summary of Business Conditions - November 2014

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