East Mids business confindence up - survey
East Midlands businesses are feeling more optimistic about 2012 than the rest of the UK, a survey from NatWest and RBS has claimed.
Research from the banking giants revealed 22 per cent of the region's companies said it would be a better year than 2011. On average, 18 per cent of UK companies gave the same response.
A further 78 per cent of East Midlands companies believed conditions would stay the same.
However, optimism faltered slightly as almost half (44 per cent per cent) said that merely surviving will be the biggest challenge in the next 12 months.
Stephen Boyle, head of group economics at RBS, said: "2011 has seen the recovery all but run out of steam, unemployment is creeping up, and the Bank of England is loosening – not tightening – monetary policy with quantitative easing.
"When businesses see uncertainty playing out on a global scale, they rightly feel nervous about their own prospects. Realistically, 2012 will be a challenging year, and it will be 2013 before the recovery starts to get back on track."
