The April DMP survey was conducted between 3 and 17 April and received 2,720 responses.
Businesses were asked about the expected impact of the spread of Covid-19 on their sales, employment and investment in 2020 Q2. On average, firms expected their sales in Q2 to be 44% lower than they would have otherwise been, employment to be 18% lower and investment to be 50% lower.
Businesses reported that 36% of employees had been furloughed in April (still employed but not required to work any hours).
In April, 86% of businesses reported that Covid-19 was their largest current source of uncertainty, up from 50% in March.
63% of businesses expected to require more credit in Q2 in response to the spread of Covid-19. 53% of firms expected their increased demand for credit to be met, but 10% of businesses expecting to want more credit did not think that it would be available.
The latest survey results are also discussed in the May Monetary Policy Report.
- Monthly aggregate-level data for a limited number of DMP series up to April 2020 (xlsx)
- Quarterly aggregate-level data for all survey questions up to April 2020 (xlsx)
The DMP was set up in August 2016 by the Bank of England together with academics from Stanford University and the University of Nottingham. It was designed to be representative of the population of UK businesses. All results are weighted. See Bloom et al (2017) for more details.
The DMP receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council.