The annual Guernsey Business Trends Survey is now complete and results have been released by the Guernsey Chamber of Commerce. The survey is organised by Young Business Group (YBG) in conjunction with the Chamber and BWCI, and presents the views of Guernsey’s business community on performance and confidence levels within their respective sector and more generally in the island.
Respondents represent a wide spectrum of sectors that make up Guernsey’s business community including hospitality and tourism, construction, retail, finance and transport.
On the whole the results were positive with 55 per cent of businesses (as compared to 48 per cent last year) reporting their profitability in 2014 to be either substantially or slightly up on 2013, and over 60 per cent of businesses reporting their turnover in 2014 to be either substantially or slightly up on 2013. These figures are the best for a number of years.
When questioned on the levels of confidence in the island’s economy over the next 12 months, however, 14 per cent (as compared to 15 per cent last year) reported feeling much more or more confident than this time last year and 42 per cent feeling less confident (compared to 28 per cent last year).
Results indicated that the three issues that the business sector sees as the highest priorities for the island to address are:
(i) reviewing the current system of government to improve efficiency/effectiveness;
(ii) improving travel links with the UK;
(iii) addressing the level of skills in the island particularly amongst younger members of the community.
Respondents were also asked how they think the States of Guernsey should deal with the budget deficit from a variety of options; the most popular being further controls on States departmental spending, which was selected by 84 per cent of respondents
The full survey results can be found on the PDF below.