SCOTTISH Chambers of Commerce’s survey is the latest of a raft of harbingers of hazardous times ahead for businesses, as Brexit looms large.
It is good to see solid performances from the Scottish manufacturing, financial and business services, and tourism sectors in the latest quarter.
However, the picture in the construction sector is mixed.
And retailers and wholesalers are facing very tough times as a result of falling real household incomes, arising from the surge in inflation caused by sterling’s post-Brexit vote woes and weak nominal wage growth.
Annual UK consumer prices index inflation, at 2.6 per cent, is nearly nine times its 0.3 per cent rate in May last year, ahead of the Brexit vote.
Scottish Chambers also reveals it is continuing to hear anecdotal evidence from the business sector as a whole north of the Border of a “slow but steady drift of EU workers out of the UK”.
The good showings in the latest quarter from several key sectors of the economy north of the Border and Scottish Chambers’ expectation of continued growth should not be overlooked. But the survey’s “stark warnings” about the big Brexit-related challenges should be the main focus looking forward.
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