Business performance - measured by the three indicators of sales, profit, and orders or new business - continued to worsen, though at much slower rates than before.The net balance is the difference between the share of firms with a year-on-year increase in an indicator, and those with a decrease. A positive net balance suggests expansion and a negative one, contraction.
Despite the bleak quarter, overall pessimism about the next six months lessened slightly, with the business prospects net balance improving 6 percentage points to -78 per cent. For small firms, their pessimism might be justified by how their overseas performance in Q2 lagged significantly behind their overall performance in terms of sales, as well as orders and new business.
Transport and communications also saw the smallest contraction in sales, for the second straight quarter.