Three out of four senior businesspeople in the North have said they will vote for the UK to remain in the EU, according to the results of a new Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce and Industry pre-referendum survey on Tuesday.
The second such survey undertaken by the organisation, which represents more than 1,200 businesses employing more than 100,000 people, shows some shift in voting intentions in the North. However, the Remain campaign remains strongly in the lead.
In the chamber’s survey in February, the campaign to stay in the EU was averaging 81 per cent of the business vote while the Leave campaign had 11 per cent, with 8 per cent undecided.
The Leave campaign now has the support of one in five business figures (21 per cent) while the Remain campaign’s support has fallen to 74 per cent. According to the poll the vast majority – nearly 90 per cent – of local businesspeople say they are unlikely to change their vote.
Chamber president Stephen McCully said the referendum vote was a key issue for the North.
“As June 23rd, 2016 fast approaches, the race for the business vote has clearly tightened. Although a clear majority of the businesspeople we surveyed continue to express a preference to remain in the European Union, the gap between Remain and Leave has narrowed in recent weeks,” he said.
“Whichever outcome prevails, attention must focus back to the economy on June 24th without delay.”
Slower pace
Meanwhile, new economic forecasts from Danske Bank suggests the North’s economy is likely to grow at a “slower pace” in 2016 because of the uncertainty over the possibility of
Brexit
. It says it has “dampened local investment levels” in the first half of the year.
Danske is forecasting that if the UK stays in the EU, the local economy should grow by 1.6 per cent this year and 1.9 per cent in 2017.
Angela McGowan, the bank's chief economist in Northern Ireland, said: "We have already seen the economic consequences of heightened uncertainty around Brexit taking its toll on the exchange rate and investment levels. For example, UK commercial property transactions were down 40 per cent in Quarter 1 relative to the same period last year."
