Agents' summary of business conditions - April 2015

We regularly publish a summary of reports compiled by our twelve regional Agents following discussions with at least 700 businesses across the UK every reporting period.
Published on 22 April 2015

This publication is a summary of monthly reports compiled by the Bank of England’s Agents following discussions with contacts in the period between late February 2015 and late March 2015.

  • Consumer demand had continued to grow moderately.
  • Housing market transactions had picked up modestly since the start of the year, but were lower than a year earlier.
  • Investment intentions had pointed to modest growth in capital expenditure over the next twelve months.
  • Business services turnover growth had been robust across a range of subsectors.
  • Manufacturing output growth for both domestic and export markets had picked up slightly.
  • Construction output growth had moderated a little further, but remained robust.
  • Corporate credit availability had improved further.
  • Employment intentions had continued to point to modest headcount growth overall, and had edged a little higher for business services.
  • Recruitment difficulties had remained somewhat higher than normal.
  • Capacity utilisation in manufacturing had eased somewhat and was now a little below normal, but had remained slightly above normal in services.
  • Growth in total labour costs per employee had remained moderate.
  • Materials costs had eased further and, along with imported finished goods prices, were lower than a year earlier.
  • Output prices had fallen for manufacturers, but had increased modestly in business services relative to a year earlier. Profitability growth had eased marginally.
  • Consumer price inflation had fallen further for goods, but remained moderate for services.

PDFDownload PDF

ExcelAgents' scores

PDFDefinitions for the Agents' scores

This page was last updated 31 January 2023

Give your feedback