Conditions could begin to ease for the UK's services sector business insurance holders, it has been suggested.
The latest Service Sector Survey from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) claimed conditions are still tough in the industry, but its business insurance customers are starting to show improvements in sentiment.
Over the past three months, consumer services firms such as hotels, bars and restaurants have seen the sharpest fall in volume of business since November 2001, although values dropped at a lesser rate due to rising prices.
Furthermore, business insurance holders in the professional services sector, such as accountancy, legal and marketing firms, saw average selling prices hit by record deflation, which caused values to fall faster than volumes.
However, the survey revealed that business insurance customers in both sectors anticipate that the decline in values and volumes will slow over the coming quarter.
Ian McCafferty, CBI chief economic adviser, said: "This survey suggests that the sharpest falls may now be over and that the situation is starting to stabilise."
Recently, the group's Industrial Trends survey revealed that manufacturing insurance holders think that the harshest phase of the recession may have passed.
