{"id":527746,"date":"2026-04-13T02:01:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T02:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/527746\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T02:01:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T02:01:13","slug":"confidence-among-big-uk-firms-plunges-to-six-year-low-deloitte","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/527746\/","title":{"rendered":"Confidence among big UK firms plunges to six-year low: Deloitte"},"content":{"rendered":"

Published Mon, Apr 13, 2026 \u00b7 08:01 AM<\/p>\n

CONFIDENCE across Britain\u2019s biggest companies has slumped to its lowest since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic as the Iran war spurred worries over surging energy prices and higher interest rates, a survey showed on Monday.<\/p>\n

The quarterly Deloitte survey of chief financial officers showed net confidence tumbled to -57 per cent in the second half of March from -13 per cent at the end of 2025, the lowest reading since the first quarter of 2020.<\/p>\n

Companies were moving swiftly into cost-cutting mode at the expense of hiring, discretionary spending and investment, Deloitte said.<\/p>\n

Finance minister Rachel Reeves had previously cited the Deloitte CFO survey as a gauge of corporate sentiment in Britain.<\/p>\n

Business surveys from S&P Global showed growth in the private sector economy slowed to a crawl in March as cost pressures increased rapidly and public inflation expectations have also risen sharply.<\/p>\n

Deloitte said 61 per cent of CFOs were \u201csignificantly concerned\u201d about rising energy prices and inflation leading to higher interest rates.<\/p>\n

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Companies\u2019 expectations for inflation in a year\u2019s time rose to 3.6 per cent, their highest level since the third quarter of 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cRarely in the last 16 years have UK CFOs been more focused on cost control than today,\u201d said Ian Stewart, chief economist at Deloitte UK.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis challenging environment is prompting CFOs to scale back expectations for margins and sharpen their focus on cost reduction and cash conservation,\u201d Stewart added.<\/p>\n

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Deloitte found a net 79 per cent of CFOs expected a fall in hiring over the next 12 months, up from 55 per cent at the end of last year. It marked the highest share since the second quarter of 2020.<\/p>\n

However, a separate survey of recruitment companies from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation showed the labour market, while still weak, did not deteriorate last month despite the uncertainty of the Iran war.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Gulf conflict provided a headwind to hiring in March, but this did not stop the trend of stabilisation that has defined 2026 so far,\u201d said REC chief executive Neil Carberry.<\/p>\n

Deloitte\u2019s survey of 79 CFOs spanned March 16-30 and included representatives from 12 FTSE 100 companies and 29 FTSE 250 firms. The remainder comprised large private firms, other listed companies or British subsidiaries of large multinationals. REUTERS<\/p>\n

Decoding Asia newsletter: your guide to navigating Asia in a new global order. Sign up here to get Decoding Asia newsletter. Delivered to your inbox. Free.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published Mon, Apr 13, 2026 \u00b7 08:01 AM CONFIDENCE across Britain\u2019s biggest companies has slumped to its lowest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":527747,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-527746","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-greatbritain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=527746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/527747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}