Trust Me - I'm An Accountant

A number of surveys over the past few years have indicated that accountants remain many business’ most trusted advisors.

This is something that we as finance directors take pride in of course, although it does not make us complacent.However the reaction to the recent survey by the Institute of Chartered Accountants, which suggests that confidence among business professionals has moved into positive territory for the first time in two years, thus indicating that the UK economy may well be showing signs of recovery, seems to have taken this trust to new levels, with the stock market rising to new year on year highs last week.

It seems that politicians, bankers and economists can chunter on as much as they like about future economic prospects, but it is humble beancounters rather than these masters of the universe that are most effective in moving markets.

So does this mean that the recession is over?

Well to misappropriate a well worn phrase, this may not be the beginning of end or even the end of beginning (there are still some nasty macro issues out there, such as the banks willingness and ability to lend, the need to rein in government spending and increase taxes to reduce the ballooning public sector deficit and the lagging indicator that is unemployment), but if there is a chance that some confidence is returning to the economy, it might just provide the encouragement needed by those business owners and managers who have been frustrated by their relative inaction since the start of the year, and who want to start moving things forward again in the last third of the year.

Now that would be an achievement for us beancounters to be proud of.