SMEs more confident over exports, finds CBI

Contractors and small businesses are growing in confidence over their prospects for selling goods to overseas purchasers, according to the CBI.

In its quarterly trends survey of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the organisation found that 27 per cent of respondents had seen their export volumes increase in the three months to January 2010.

Although 25 per cent claimed that they saw a decrease in exports, the two per cent positive figure is the strongest growth in sales to foreign individuals and businesses since January 2008.

Phil McCabe, a spokesman for the Forum of Private Business, welcomed the CBI's findings, describing the levels of confidence as being "obviously positive".

"Exporting could be a way out of economic difficulties for many businesses and it's certainly something that they should explore as a matter of course," he said.

However, he urged small businesses to continue to tighten their belts over the coming months and warned that the worst economic conditions are not over yet.

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