NewsBibby Financial Services: 2019 Global Business Monitor

Revealing insights from SMEs around the world

In partnership with Euler Hermes, this year’s research surveyed 2,300 small and medium-sized businesses across 13 countries: Canada, USA, Ireland, UK, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hong Kong and Singapore. The report presents the opinions of owners and senior decision-makers of SMEs across the manufacturing, construction, wholesale, transport, and services sectors.

The Global Business Monitor reports business sentiment on topics including confidence, sales expectations, the economy, access to finance and business challenges, including the causes of cash flow problems. Download the report to discover where SMEs see their best opportunities for import, export and growth over the coming year.

Key findings

  • Overall SME confidence in local markets has fallen from 54% in 2017 to 48% in 2019
  • One in three SMEs struggle with cashflow
  • Over two-fifths of SMEs are finding it difficult to collect payment from customers on time
  • 69% of SMEs in the US are confident that their local economy is currently performing well
  • 29% of UK SMEs are concerned that current economic performance in their country is poor
  • SMEs in Ireland (53%) are the most upbeat about sales performance over the past year