Performance Monitor – December 2017

Better news again this month with December seeing ER businesses reporting increases in both their visitors (+4.23%) and turnover (+3.71%) compared with the same time last year, with the increases higher than those for the region as a whole of +1.62% and +2.39% for visitors and turnover respectively.

Looking ahead, the outlook for January and February both appear to be relatively positive as well with 61% of businesses in each case anticipating increased or level performance at the current time compared with the same time last year, although these could both change of course by the time the actual performance data is collected.

For the 2017 Christmas period, three quarters of businesses reported increased or level performance compared with the same time in 2016 whilst 65% of businesses said the same for their overall business performance during 2017 compared with 2016.

As a result of a good end to the year our revised estimates are that visitors and turnover are likely to be slightly down by around 2-2.5% compared with 2016 based on the businesses responding to this survey to date.

A total sample of 71 this month. Business optimism was calculated at 6.84 compared with 6.65 for the region as a whole.