Breaking this down, the business activity indicator was strongly positive for the finance sector (+43 pp) and was moderately positive for the non-finance sector (+11 pp).
The business activity indicator for finance was significantly higher than in March, and was the highest balance recorded since June 2014.
Pictured: The business activity indicator for finance was the highest balance recorded since June 2014.
The non-finance sector also saw a strong quarterly increase of 36 pp and was the highest recorded balance since September 2018.
With regards to covid, the turnover indicator was moderately positive at +10 pp, which shows a strong improvement of 31 pp compared to the previous quarter.
The actively working indicator was essentially neutral at -8 pp which was unchanged from the previous quarter.
In the last three months, 53% of businesses had taken some additional workforce measures in response to covid, but the most cited measure in this quarter was recruiting staff rather than accessing the Co-Funded Payroll Scheme.
Looking over the next quarter to September, the outlook for future business activity was strongly positive (+29 pp) overall, with the indicator balance being strongly positive for both finance (+38 pp) and non-finance (+25 pp),
The overall future employment outlook was also strongly positive (+32 pp), with the indicator being strongly positive for finance (+49pp) and moderately positive for non-finance (+21 pp).
Looking specifically at the finance industry for the rest of the year, the employment expectations indicator for 2021 was strongly positive (+30 pp), while the profit expectations indicator for 2021 was extremely positive (+63 pp); 74% of finance companies anticipated an increase in profits in 2021, compared to 11% that anticipated a decrease; showing a strongly positive turnaround from the previous two quarters.