Reuters report on the Institute of Directors (IoD) confidence tracker, which has fallen steadily since April
This month it hit its lowest for a year and a half
- IoD senior economist Tej Parikh said there was no doubt that the tumultuous Brexit process was having a damaging impact on firms' outlooks."Business leaders are looking ahead to the new year with trepidation about the economy," he said."While we saw cautious optimism emerging when the Brexit talks appeared to be moving towards a transition period after March 2019, that has utterly dissipated now."
For a more encouraging take on the results though:
- while business leaders were pessimistic about the economy, confidence in their own firms remained relatively upbeat
- Optimism levels for the wider economy stood at -38 percent in December … the corresponding level for respondents' own companies was +30 percent
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IoD survey of 724 business leaders
