Confidence among business owners in the South West has dropped as firms in the region come under increasing pressure from rising inflation and a slowing of the global economy, a new report has revealed.
The amount of new work received by the West Country's private sector firms fell during July - ending a 16-month period of expansion - according to the research from NatWest.
The bank's South West PMI Business Activity Index – a seasonally adjusted index that measures the month-on-month change in the combined output of the region’s manufacturing and service sectors – rose only fractionally from 51.2 in June to 51.3 in July.
