The quarterly Jersey Business Tendency Survey (BTS) provides timely, qualitative information about the Island’s economy.

Chief executives and managing directors are asked for their opinions on the current situation of their business compared to three months earlier and their expectations for the next three months.

In March 2018:

• the headline all-sector business activity indicator was +16 percentage points (pp); this means the proportion of businesses reporting an increase was 16 pp greater than those reporting a decrease
• the business activity indicator increased by 4 pp over the last three months
• six out of the eight current indicators were positive; only profitability and input costs were negative
• the only current indicator to change by 10 pp or more was the product prices indicator, which increased by 12 pp to a strongly positive +26 pp
• the profitability indicator was positive (+18 pp) for the finance sector, but negative (-22 pp) for non finance, resulting in an all-sector indicator of -9 pp
• over half (54%) of companies reported higher input costs, producing a strongly negative indicator of  50 pp; this was more pronounced for non-finance companies, which had an indicator of -62 pp
• the finance sector was significantly more positive than the non-finance sector in nine of the ten indicators, eight of which were more than 20 pp higher for the finance sector
• the outlook for future business activity was positive for both the finance and non-finance sectors, with the finance sector being strongly positive
• the future employment outlook was positive (+12 pp), driven by the strongly positive finance sector (+37 pp); the indicator was neutral (+1 pp) for the non-finance sector