The February DMP survey was conducted between 7 and 21 February and received 2,891 responses.
The proportion of firms citing Brexit as one of their top three current sources of uncertainty remained broadly unchanged in February at 44%, following a fall since the UK general election.
Businesses expect uncertainties around Brexit to take longer to be resolved than in the January survey. In February, 76% of businesses expected uncertainty to persist until at least 2021. That proportion had risen from 59% in January, continuing a trend seen over recent months.
In February, businesses were asked about their preparedness for the potential extra requirements of trading with the EU at the end of the transition period. 4% reported that they were fully prepared, 38% were as ready as they can be, 31% were partially prepared and 5% were not at all prepared. 23% of respondents said that the extra requirements were not relevant as they do not trade with the EU.
Businesses who trade with the EU were also asked which the most significant obstacles to their business trading with the EU under a new trade deal would be, assuming that a deal is reached. Increased tariffs were most commonly cited as a significant obstacle (39% of firms), followed by restrictions on the movement of people (36% of firms) and custom declarations and checks (30% of firms).
- Monthly aggregate-level data for a limited number of DMP series up to February 2020 (xlsx)
Quarterly aggregate-level data for all survey questions up to January 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.