Business growth at two-year low in North
Business growth has hit a two-year low in the North as part of the weakening economic climate, an Ulster Bank analysis said today.
The credit crunch in banking and fears of a steep housing market slowdown were blamed for last month’s disappointing results.
Businesses and consumers have reined in spending with less demand from local and foreign markets.
The update said: “Barring a significant recovery in December, growth of private sector activity in quarter four is set to be the weakest since at least quarter three in 2006.
“Although overall volumes of incoming new business continued to rise, the pace of growth weakened for the fourth month running in November to a negligible pace that was the slowest in over two years.”
House price growth has fallen dramatically in recent months amid interest rate rises, rising fuel costs and turbulence in the finance markets.
While growth of new business is stagnating, the dossier said companies in the North reported greater success in clearing outstanding workloads in November. It recorded the first outright decline in outstanding business since August 2005.
It said: “The modest overall decline in backlogs of work in November was also a reflection of a further expansion of employment levels at Northern Ireland firms.
“The latest increase in the private sector workforce was the 21st in successive months and growth remained solid, supported primarily by rising staffing levels in the service sector.”
