Optimism among manufacturers in the final quarter of 2019 was the highest the CBI survey has recorded since April 2014 Carl Court/Getty ImagesManufacturers have declared themselves more bullish about the future than at any time in the past six years, despite output tumbling and expansion constrained by labour shortages. The latest quarterly industrial trends survey from the CBI, the business lobby group, found a positive balance of optimism among businesses in manufacturing of 23 per cent, a huge turnaround from the -44 per cent recorded in the last quarterly survey in October, when Boris Johnson was struggling to secure a Brexit deal. It is the largest quarterly swing since the survey began in 1958. The findings reduce the chances of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee cutting interest rates at its meeting next week. Until this week financial markets had estimated a two in three chance…

Source: The Times January 23, 2020 00:00 UTC