However, profitability and “input” costs caused concern over the last quarter.
Pictured: Business activity showed a general increase across private sector organisations.
Input costs are defined as “the average cost for all inputs used by an organisation… [and] include supplies obtained, stocks/materials bought in and costs of employees, including wages, salaries and pension costs paid by an organisation.”
These costs increased in the non-finance sector for 65% of companies, and 36% in the finance sector, giving an increase for 56% of companies overall.
Pictured: The latest figures showed that input costs were a burden on the finance sector.
In the finance sector, key indicators such as profitability, future business and future employment were all positive, with only the cost of doing business showing a negative picture.
But it was a more negative picture outside the finance industry where higher costs were affecting almost two-thirds of respondents, with a knock-on effect on profitability, which fell for almost two thirds of businesses who completed the survey.
Pictured: Profitability took a hit in non-finance sector businesses.
You can read the full survey results here.