About the NatWest UK Business Growth Tracker
The NatWest UK Business Growth Tracker is a quarterly report, designed to monitor business performance at UK small and medium-sized enterprises (1-249 employees) and mid-market corporates (more than 249 employees). Results are compiled from responses to S&P Global UK Purchasing Managers’ Index® (PMI®) surveys. We also track sustainability actions across five main categories.
The panel of around 850 small and medium-sized enterprises and 200 mid-market enterprises is stratified by detailed sector, based on contributions to GDP.
Survey responses are collected by S&P Global in the second half of each month and indicate the direction of change compared to the previous month. A diffusion index is calculated for each survey variable. The index is the sum of the percentage of ‘higher’ responses and half the percentage of ‘unchanged’ responses.
The UK Business Growth Tracker indices vary between 0 and 100, with a reading above 50 indicating an overall increase compared to the previous month, and below 50 an overall decrease. The indices are then seasonally adjusted. Indices are compiled for a range of survey variables, including business activity, new orders, employment, input costs, prices charged, suppliers' delivery times and future activity.
The UK Business Growth Tracker data for December were collected 05 – 20 December 2024. Composite data are available from January 1998. Manufacturing data are available from January 1992, Services data from July 1996 and Construction data from April 1997.
