The Institute of Directors (IoD) Guernsey branch is launching the third edition of its Economic Confidence Survey, inviting its members to share their views on the current business climate, economic outlook and key challenges facing organisations in the Bailiwick.
The survey aims to capture an up-to-date snapshot of sentiment across Guernsey’s business community and to identify the key trends emerging over time. Responses will also be shared with the States of Guernsey and local media, offering timely insight ahead of the 2025 General Election.
Theresults of the last edition of the survey, which were released in October 2024, revealed that while confidence remained strong at the individual business level (+47%), expectations for the wider economy had softened further, with net confidence in the Guernsey economy falling to -25%, down from -18% in May 2024. Despite this drop, Guernsey remained ahead of the UK’s -58% reading at that time.
The UK’s confidence remained at -58% in the last survey taken in March 2025, whilst Jersey’s first Economic Confidence survey taken at the start of 2025 showed that net confidence in our sister island was -22%.
Top issues in Guernsey remained broadly consistent across the two previous surveys. Air and sea links, labour costs and availability, housing and skills shortages continue to dominate concerns, whilst Guernsey's economic conditions replaced regulation in the top 5 in the second survey.
IoD Guernsey’s economic lead, Richard Hemans, said:
‘This will now be our third survey, and each round gives us stronger data to track how confidence is shifting and what’s influencing that. The results highlight where business priorities lie and give us a stronger basis to push for policy changes that reflect the concerns of Guernsey’s business community, especially in what will be a significant year for the island given the upcoming election.’
The third survey will include questions on economic growth, productivity, the fiscal deficit and entrepreneurship, areas expected to feature heavily in policy discussions as candidates set out their manifestos. There has been some concern expressed this year about economic stagnation, and candidates must be able to articulate their plans to address these issues.
The survey, which is only available to IoD members, opens on Wednesday 7 May and closes at midnight on Monday 26 May. Results will be shared with IoD members at the end of May, followed by publication to key stakeholders, including Deputies, civil servants and local business groups well in advance of the election on 18 June.