SMEs will be focusing less on growth and more on stabilising their business in the next three months, Hitachi Capital’s quarterly British business barometer found.

Out of the 1005 small business executives interviewed in the end of July and beginning of August, 46% said that they will focus on stabilising their business in the next quarter, while 40% responded that they will focus on growth.

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The only area of the UK that the number of businesses focusing on growth exceeded those seeking to stabilise the business was London.

According to the survey, there has been lack of confidence among SMEs across different sectors, with pessimism high in manufacturing and construction in particular.

Only 36% of SMEs in the manufacturing sector said that they will be looking into growing their business, while over one in two (52%) small businesses in the construction sector are looking to stay the same rather than grow in the next three months.

The agricultural sector, compared with others is much less optimistic for growth this quarter. Only 13% of SMEs in the sector are looking towards any type of growth in the coming months. This is a decrease of 8% on the figures in Q2 2015 (21%), and a 12% decrease on the Q1 2015 figures (25%).

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Gavin Wraith-Carter, general manager at Hitachi Capital Business Finance said: "With all indicators pointing towards the growth of the economy, focus has been too concerned with consumer confidence. Continuing to support SMEs means we can keep the balance right. We can see from the research that the growth outlook varies significantly by quarter and currently many businesses will be focusing on keeping the business steady – not looking towards ambitious growth, although this doesn’t mean that businesses shouldn’t be investing in assets which refresh or replace existing items."