Search
Close this search box.
>
>
Quarterly Economic Survey

Quarterly Economic Survey

Insights Unit

Uncover Vital Insights from the UK's Largest Independent Business Survey

The Quarterly Economic Survey (QES) is the UK’s largest and longest-running independent survey of business sentiment. Founded in 1989 and comprising of around 5,000 respondents each quarter, it provides unparalleled insight into how UK businesses are performing from quarter to quarter.

The QES asks UK businesses if they have experienced a change in a range of indicators each quarter, including sales, exports, cash flow, investment, and recruitment, as well as the top issues of concern. It provides a wealth of data on UK business conditions and is split into three publications:

– The Quarterly Economic Survey, providing an essential overview of UK business conditions.

– The Quarterly Recruitment Outlook, looking at the proportion of firms attempting to recruit and whether they are facing difficulties doing so.

– The Trade Confidence Outlook, looking at whether UK exporters are reporting a change in exports and sales each quarter.

As the largest and most representative independent business survey of its kind in the UK, the QES is closely watched by policymakers such as the Treasury, the Bank of England and the Office of Budget Responsibility, while also attracting significant media attention.

BCC Quarterly Economic Survey: The balance of responding businesses expecting their prices to rise in the next three months

No Data Found

DISCOVER MORE

Our latest reports

Established in 1989, the UK’s largest and longest-running independent business sentiment survey with 5k responses per quarter.

Exclusive insight into the recruitment realities faced by UK businesses, including key trends, problems, and predictions.

The largest quarterly survey of UK exporters, yielding crucial insights from our esteemed QES.

view LATEST RESULTS

QUARTERLY ECONOMIC SURVEY

Q3 2024 REPORT
Q2 2024 REPORT
DOWNLOAD Q4 2023 REPORT
DOWNLOAD Q3 2023 REPORT
DOWNLOAD Q2 2023 REPORT
DOWNLOAD Q1 2023 REPORT

view LATEST RESULTS

QUARTERLY recruitment outlook

Q2 2024 PRESS RELEASE
Q1 2024 PRESS RELEASE
DOWNLOAD Q4 2020 REPORT
DOWNLOAD Q3 2020 REPORT

view LATEST RESULTS

Trade Confidence Outlook

Q2 2024 PRESS RELEASE
Q1 2024 PRESS RELEASE
Q1 2022 Trade Confidence Outlook
Q3 2021 Trade Confidence Outlook

Our flagship Quarterly Economic Survey is the largest and most representative independent business survey of its kind in the UK. The QES closely watched by policymakers such as the Treasury, the Bank of England and the Office of Budget Responsibility, and also attracts a significant amount of media attention.

We all benefit from data and surveys – including the informative recruitment and economic surveys conducted by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC).

Andrew Bailey, Governor of the Bank of England, 2023

Sample size – The survey is aggregated from businesses sourced by the Chamber of Commerce network from across the UK. Completed by over 6,000 businesses each quarter, it is one of the UK’s largest and most representative private business surveys.

Multi-sector – Covers both the manufacturing sector (25% of respondents) and services sector (75%). A high proportion of respondents from both sectors are exporters.

Company size – The survey covers businesses of all sizes, with the vast majority of respondents falling in to the SME category of under 250 employees.

Timeliness – Each quarter, the QES is made available before official statistics (such as GDP growth), and so provides an up to the minute picture of business sentiment.

Subscribers of QES can receive bespoke datasets in Excel form. For information about how the data packages we offer could benefit your business, please contact [email protected]

OUR RESEARCH CONSULTANCY SERVICE

Harness our reliable data to make the right decisions for your organisation.

INSIGHTS UNIT

Discover More

Quarterly Economic Survey

Established in 1989, the UK’s largest and longest-running independent business sentiment survey with 5k responses per quarter.

JOIN THE CHAMBER NETWORK

Unlock boundless opportunities. Click here to find your local Chamber and take the first steps towards making your business & community thrive.