Brussels, 23/03/2010 (Agence Europe) - Business confidence is on the rise but an upswing is not near, appears to be the main observation made in an EU-wide survey recently conducted by UEAPME, the European craft and SME employers' organisation. The information was collected between December 2009 and February 2010. The results from this Craft and SME Barometer show an improvement in companies' expectations with regard to those that appeared last autumn. Since then, the proportion of entrepreneurs expecting a positive or neutral economic environment has grown to 64.7%, 10 percentage points above expectations one year ago but still considerably under the levels recorded before the downturn. Caution, however, appears to be the watchword and recovery could vary quite considerably from one sector to another.
Gerhard Huemer, the head of the UEAPME study unit explained that small companies appear to be convinced that the worst is behind them but they are still rather worried about the future. In a press release published on Tuesday 23 March he stated: “What is clear, on the other hand, is that the situation will take different shapes across economic sectors. Service providers are likely to be in the black relatively soon, while the manufacturing and construction sectors are in for a bumpier ride”. Although few differences appeared to be affected by the size of the SMEs interviewed, prospects vary considerably from sector to sector. Expectations in the manufacturing sector and construction are the lowest (due to the crisis in the automobile sector and the lack of private demand). The business and personal services sectors have experienced clear improvements. SMEs do not appear to be recruiting for the moment and are not planning on increasing their investments (previous studies confirmed, however, that the results were actually better than initially forecast). “The recession may be behind, but an upswing does not seem to be near”, concluded Mr Huemer. The study is available at: http://www.ueapme.com/IMG/pdf/100323_Barometer_2010_H1_final.pdf. (A.B./transl.fl)