German-British Business Outlook Spring 2022 Survey results published
5 May 2022
The German-British business community remains more positive about its own activities in the UK than about the British economy overall. The war in Ukraine and global supply chain issues present new challenges, which are increasingly affecting the business community. On the other hand, addressing climate change will offer significant business opportunities, however current initiatives in the UK are not yet seen as sufficient.
Similar to the autumn of 2021, half of our companies are positive or very positive about their own current and expected future performance in the UK, with half planning to increase their investment and to recruit more staff.
However, more respondents are expecting the UK economy to continue to ‘cool’ in the coming 12 months: 38% expect a worsening performance and only 23% expect it to perform better.
Logistical problems remain the largest challenge for businesses, but for the first time, rising energy and other input costs are listed as key challenges, indicating a significant economic impact of the war in Ukraine (56% are already feeling economic effects). Shortage of skills and trade barriers/customs formalities have been pushed down the list of challenges. With the lifting of most Covid restrictions, travel restrictions are also no longer major issues.
Concerning climate change-mitigating policies in the UK, fewer than 5% of respondents see them as very effective. However, more is expected to happen in future to address these challenges. As a result, companies see significant potential future business opportunities in the field of renewable energy production, energy efficiency and hydrogen technologies. E-mobility as a business opportunity, perhaps surprisingly, does not feature that high on the list.
Dr Ulrich Hoppe, Director General of the German-British Chamber of Industry & Commerce, commented, "The survey results suggest that, despite the recent significant decline in bilateral trade, the German-British business community remains positive about their own operations in the UK. In other words, the companies which are already successful in the UK will continue to be so. In addition, future business opportunities are seen in the field of climate change-mitigating technologies but Brexit-related issues and the war in Ukraine continue to have a negative impact on businesses and may become even more challenging in the near future.”
64 online interviews were conducted with members of the German-British business community with UK operations. The study was part of the World Business Outlook survey of the Association of German Chambers of Industry & Commerce. Fieldwork was conducted between 8 April and 20 April 2022. The full results can be found at: https://grossbritannien.ahk.de/en/german-british-business-outlook.
Kindly supplied by the German-British Chamber of Industry & Commerce
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