Private Sector Flourishing According To Latest Report

The latest report, looking at September, by the Ulster Bank Northern Ireland Growth Tracker, shows the private sector flourishing. Business activity in the sector is increasing, more orders are coming in and many companies are taking on more staff, which all points to a healthy state of affairs.

The main areas of growth were definitely in the manufacturing and services sectors, with construction and retail rather lagging behind.

The Northern Ireland Private Sector Is Leading The Pack

Here is what Sebastian Burnside, NatWest Group’s Chief Economist, said about the latest figures in this report, as copied from an article on the Business Eye website. He said that:

““The Northern Ireland private sector completed a full quarter leading the pack in terms of output growth in September, an impressive feat for an economy that this time last year was struggling deep in contraction territory,

“Central to the rejuvenation of the private sector has been the success firms have had in securing new orders, and this continued in September, albeit with the pace of growth easing to a seven-month low.

“Companies continued to hire additional staff to try and deal with the influx of new work, but further reports from respondents of difficulties finding suitably skilled staff in the local labour market meant that backlogs of work accumulated again. While unlikely to be a short-term fix, any efforts to help upskill the local workforce would give firms a better chance of getting work completed on time and keeping customers happy. Perhaps linked in some part to staff shortages, wage pressures were again the key factor behind a further sharp rise in firms’ costs.

“Behind the generally positive story across the private sector, evidence of a two-speed economy has emerged. Growth continued to be driven by manufacturing and services, while the picture was much more muted in construction and retail. 

“For now, the private sector seems in a good position to finish off the year with a flourish.”

Main Findings Of The Report

And here are some of the findings from the report, as copied from the same article. It reads:

‘The headline Business Activity Index – a seasonally adjusted index that measures the month-on-month change in the combined output of the region’s private sector – increased to a four-month high of 56.0 in September from 55.7 in August. The sharp expansion was also the fastest of the 12 monitored UK regions and nations. The manufacturing and services sectors posted the strongest increases in activity in September. Construction activity was also up, but retail recorded a decline.

‘Northern Ireland companies posted a ninth consecutive monthly increase in new business during September. The rate of growth was solid, despite easing to the weakest since February. Meanwhile, companies remained optimistic that output will increase over the coming year. Where a rise in activity is predicted, companies linked this to increasing workloads and business expansion plans.’

So all very encouraging news as we move towards the final few months of the year, let’s hope we can finish the year with an even greater flourish.