Optimism Grows Among 33% Of Business Leaders About The Irish Economy
From Business Plus
A third (33%) of the 336 business leaders questioned for the B2Best research in February said they are more optimistic about the economy than they were a year ago.
A further quarter (27%) said they saw no change in their optimism levels year-on-year while four in 10 businesses (40%) are less optimistic about the Irish economy than they were this time last year, the research conducted for Business Plus by Amárach shows.
The vast majority (87%) of executives who responded work for Irish-headquartered firms, but of the 13% attached to multinationals, 38% said they are more optimistic and 33% are less optimistic about the economy compared to last year.
Just 32% of Irish-headquartered firms said they are more optimistic while 42% answered that they are less optimistic.
Around 26% of Irish and 29% of foreign firms answered ‘no change’.
B2C firms (47%) stood out as being less optimistic than average, while B2B (38%) and mixed (36%) companies were below the average for economic pessimism.
Conversely, a third of B2C firms (33%) answered that they are more optimistic year-on-year, slightly more than mixed businesses (31%) but less than among B2B firms.
Some 34% of mixed companies answered no change compared to 21% of B2C and 27% of B2B.
Exporters (37%) were more likely to answer that they are more optimistic about the economy than non-exporting firms (30%).
Optimism was higher among respondents when they were asked about their own company’s growth prospects, with 43% answering that they are more optimistic than last year against 30% who are less optimistic and 27% who are the same.
Again, foreign-headquartered multinationals (56%) were generally likely to answer that they are more optimistic than Irish-based firms (41%), and the inverse was true for being less optimistic (22% vs 32%).
The proportion of SMEs (42%) and corporations (44%) answering that they are more optimistic than in 2023 were similar, but small businesses (33%) were significantly more likely than corporates (24%) to be less optimistic about their growth prospects.
In terms of market focus, mixed companies were the most likely to be more optimistic about their fortunes (46%) compared to B2B (44%) and B2C (40%), and B2C (33%) firms were most likely to be less optimistic versus B2B (30%) and mixed (27%)
Firms that export (48%) abroad far over-indexed the average for being more optimistic about their prospects while non-exporters (40%) were below average.
Amarách conducted the research from 1-19 February among a sample of 336 decision-makers in Irish organisations using an online survey questionnaire designed in collaboration with Business Plus.