Sales and confidence levels up, says Q3 survey
Businesses in the Black Country are "broadly optimistic" about the future, according to the chamber of commerce's quarterly economic survey.
The report by the Black Country Chamber of Commerce said that 68 per cent of manufacturing businesses expected sales to increase in the coming few months – up from 48 per cent last quarter.
In the service sector 52 per cent said they anticipated a sales increase while 31 per cent expect them to remain stable.
Almost half of manufacturers (47 per cent) expect exports to increase with just 5 per cent expecting a fall.
Among Black Country manufacturers, 48 per cent claim to have increased employee numbers and nearly a third of these (31 per cent) say they will increase in the next quarter too.
Turnover expectations in manufacturing firms have risen since quarter two from 67 per cent, with 70 pre cent now expecting turnover to improve.
However, profitability however has remained stagnant with 65 per cent of respondents saying they expect profitability to improve.
