According to the latest quarterly survey by Bank of Scotland's (BoS) corporate banking arm, net optimism - the balance of managers that are looking forward to the future versus those who are not - rose 47% between February 2003 and the same month this year. Now, 83% of bosses are confident about general economic conditions.
Looking at their own businesses, managers are even more confident with almost nine in ten looking forward to the next 12 months. BoS said the figures were 23% higher than the last survey three months ago.
In a further illustration of the brightening mood, 35% of the 1,000 bosses interviewed said they planned to increase spending on the business this year, with 30% expecting to increase spending by more than 30%. Encouragingly, 34% added that they would be taking on more staff.
