The Federation of Small Businesses’ (FSB) quarterly survey has found that business confidence has recovered. The report noted that confidence is being restored after a decline at the end of last year, but ‘dark clouds’ are on the horizon as costs remain high.
The study found that sentiment improved among small business owners and sole traders over the first three months of the year. However, the FSB’s confidence measure scored minus 2.8 points in the first quarter of the year, which means more firms felt pessimistic than optimistic. Interestingly, there was an improvement from the confidence drop in the final quarter of 2022, which had a negative reading of minus 45.8 points as retailers and hospitality firms were struck by higher costs and reduced consumer spending.
The report found that the tech and science sectors were leading the way with a positive confidence reading of 14.9 points.
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