Yorkshire Finance Director of the Year Awards

The Optimistic Accountant!

I am sure that my dear friends in the local accountancy community would forgive me for suggesting that they aren’t traditionally revered as the most optimistic of Professions. In fact, they are paid to exercise “professional caution” and temper our businesses with a good measure of “glass half empty” to offer an often much needed balanced view of the world.

However, according to a recent study conducted by The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) the UK recession is coming to an end! According to the new study, recent months have seen the biggest rise in business confidence in nearly two years. The study represented the views of 1,000 accountants working Nigel Brewster - MD in businesses in all areas across the country and interestingly enough indicated that Wales was the area that was most upbeat, followed by Scotland and northern England and rather unsurprisingly London and the South East continued to remain the most nervous. Further good news was that out of the 1,000 accountants, the vast majority expected the UK economy to significantly improve over the next 12 months and beyond.

Such studies all seem to suggest that we are over the worst of the recession and the most recent Quarterly Economic Survey conducted by Doncaster Chamber of Commerce saw a dramatic increase in business confidence and clear signs that things were set to improve. Last week’s continued improvement in the FTSE also looks like good news as rising hopes of a global economic recovery boosted sentiment across world markets with many optimistic in the belief that the FTSE is very close to breaking the psychological 5,000 point barrier.

Unfortunately, the bad news is that recent government figures indicated that the total number of unemployed has risen again and looks set to continue to rise well into next year – perhaps we need the ‘Optimistic Accountants’ to turn their attention to the labour market!

For more information please contact Nigel Brewster: T:01302 367444 E: nigel.brewster@sewellm.co.uk