Business confidence 'on the up'

Confidence among UK businesses has risen to its highest level in 18 months, according to the results of a survey published today.

In research conducted for professional services firm KPMG, 19% of executives said that the outlook for business was either 'good' or 'very good', compared to 9% in the previous three-month period.

And the proportion who felt that the outlook was 'bad' or 'very bad' fell from 54% in the previous quarter, to 24% at the end of Q3.

The survey - which polled the opinions of executives at 205 UK firms - follows last week's news of improved optimism in the manufacturing sector.

However, both polls pre-date figures released on Friday, which revealed that the UK's gross domestic product had contracted by 0.4%, leaving the country in recession for the sixth successive quarter. The results, which mean the UK has seen its longest recession since quarterly figures were first recorded in 1955, caused widespread surprise among analysts - who had expected to see a return to growth.

Commenting on the KPMG survey, the firm's UK head of markets, Malcolm Edge, said: "While at first glance these statistics do look encouraging, we must not forget that opinion is still heavily divided as to whether or not the economy is out of intensive care."