Brexit uncertainty weighs heavily on British companies – The Telegraph

The UK Telegraph, in its latest article, cited the quarterly International Business Report from accountancy firm Grant Thornton, highlighting that the Global business optimism is at a record high, but Brexit uncertainty weighs heavily on the UK firms.

Key Points:

Global business optimism is at a record high at the highest level since it was started 25 years ago.

The expectation that profitability will increase in the next 12 months.

The proportion of firms which said they would raise the prices of their products was at the highest rate in nearly three years.

For British companies, the survey's measure of the net balance of optimism - the proportion of positive attitudes minus that of negative beliefs - was at 12pc in the fourth quarter of last year.

61 percentage points lower than the same period in 2015.

Robert Hannah, chief operating officer of Grant Thornton, said: "UK businesses have effectively been kept in a holding pattern since the vote to leave the European Union in June 2016, with very few details over Brexit negotiations causing significant uncertainty since. However, the past few weeks have given businesses a degree of clarity over the process and we should see this start to be reflected in optimism figures over the coming months."