• Swindon & Wiltshire Economy
• Wednesday April 30 2025

Business confidence in South West bounced back in April

Business confidence in the South West bounced back in April, rising 13 points on the Business Barometer from Lloyds.

But despite renewed optimism in their own trading prospects, which rose to 43 per cent, certainty about the economy overall slipped 13 points to two per cent, resulting in overall confidence falling one point to 22 per cent.

A net balance of 35 per cent of businesses in the region said they expect to increase staff levels over the next year, up nine points on last month.

Looking ahead to the next six months, South West businesses identified their top target areas for growth as entering new markets (41 per cent), evolving their offering, for example by introducing new products or services (41 per cent) and investing in their team, for instance through training (29 per cent).

Amanda Dorel, regional director for the South West at Lloyds, said: “While there has been a slight dip in overall business confidence, it’s encouraging to see this rise in firms’ own trading optimism – a testament to the region’s resilience.

“It’s also great to see more South West businesses planning to invest in their teams, whether that’s through hiring or training. This is something that will bring benefits to the whole regional economy.

“Whatever firms’ ambitions, we’ll continue to be ready to help them make the most of any new opportunities on the horizon.”

Hann-Ju Ho, senior economist, Lloyds Commercial Banking, said: “With the announcement of global tariffs from the United States on April 2 and the market volatility that followed, it is unsurprising that business confidence saw an impact this month.

“However, economic optimism remains higher than at the beginning of the year, showing businesses’ resilience in the face of recent challenges and overall confidence is still well above the long-term average of 29 per cent, an average taken from over 20 years of analysis.”

The Business Barometer, which surveys 1,200 businesses monthly and which has been running since 2002, provides early signals about UK economic trends both regionally and nationwide.

The overall ‘balance’ of business confidence opinion weighs up the percentage of firms that are positive in outlook against those that are negative and gives a net balance on a scale of -100 per cent to 100 per cent, where a score of 0 would mean there was an even balance of positive and negative sentiment.

The barometer has continued to see big swings in 2025, gaining 16 points in January and February – when confidence stood at 42 per cent – before losing 19 in March.