Businesses in Wales are seeing a fall in their exports, according to the South Wales Chamber of Commerce’s latest Quarterly Economic Survey (QES), released today (9 October).
The survey, which is jointly published with the Mid Wales and the West Cheshire & North Wales Chambers of Commerce and acts as a barometer for the strength of the Welsh economy, has found that the number of businesses where export sales have recently decreased has almost doubled from on the previous quarter (11.6% in Q2 2014 – 22% in Q3 2014).
Expressing his concern over the amount of exports from Wales following the QES findings, director of the South Wales Chamber of Commerce, Graham Morgan, commented: “Over the last year or so, we have seen steady progress in the amount that Wales is exporting overseas, both in our Quarterly Economic Survey and official government figures, so this latest survey, which indicates a decrease in export figures for businesses in Wales, is certainly a concern.
“We work with a wide range of organisations to encourage Welsh businesses to consider exporting as companies that export are generally more dynamic, able to get more out of their products and are more resilient to changes in the economy.
“We have consistently called for additional support for Welsh businesses to help them access markets overseas, and this is clearly required now more than ever. There are lots of businesses delivering outstanding services or producing great products that would do well in overseas markets, but perhaps these companies lack the knowledge of how to penetrate overseas markets.”
Nearly half of businesses enjoyed consistent levels of UK sales and orders (46%), but more businesses reported that they had not increased their workforce during the last three months (up 4.9 percentage points on the previous quarter), possibly as a result of companies continuing to report that they are experiencing difficulties in recruiting (60.3%, an increase of 6.3 percentage points on Q2 of 2014).
Mr Morgan added: “Looking at some of the other key statistics is the survey, the positivity we have been seeing over the last few quarters across Wales as a whole seems to be continuing, but the pace of improvement is slowing down.
“Across the board, more and more businesses are telling us that they have ‘remained constant’ over the last quarter. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and is certainly better than a decrease, but it does pose us with a challenge to ensure that improvement is seen in the future.
“Over the next three years we will see three key elections – the UK election in May 2015, the Welsh election in May 2016 and council elections the following year. All these bodies have a significant impact on the Welsh economy and it’s therefore crucial that the business community works to ensure that the policies of the administrations in Westminster, Cardiff Bay and local councils across Wales are focussed on growing our economy.
“The Welsh economy is underperforming compared with the majority of the UK on a number of key indicators. Our members are telling us that significant change is needed to overcome this. We need to build the transport infrastructure for the future, improve the skills of the current and future workforce and encourage business ambition amongst Wales’ people, as well as making sure that today’s businesses thrive.
“It is vital that these issues are addressed by politicians in their election manifestos if we are to truly build a strong sustainable economy in both Wales and across the UK, and is something that will certainly form the focus of our own manifesto which will be released a little later this year.”