Businesses with fewer than 250 employees are increasingly struggling to land new orders, with a key survey recording the slowest rate of growth for six months.
Services companies experienced a “particularly sharp slowdown” in activity growth in June, the quarterly index compiled by the banking group NatWest showed, although construction was the weakest-performing. Manufacturers signalled broadly unchanged production volumes.
The survey is based on more than 800 responses to a purchasing managers’ index researched by S&P Global. The index stood at 50.9 in June, down from a 2023 high of 55.1 in February. Anything over 50 indicates growth in business activity.
It also found that as prospects have weakened, businesses are altering their investment plans. The small and medium-sized companies were asked if environmental sustainability
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