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
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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.
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QUARTERLY ECONOMIC SURVEY
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QUARTERLY recruitment outlook
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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).
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]
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INSIGHTS UNIT
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Quarterly Economic Survey
Quarterly Economic Forecast
What Do UK Businesses Think?
Quarterly Economic Survey
Established in 1989, the UK’s largest and longest-running independent business sentiment survey with 5k responses per quarter.
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