contraction

Its small business index, which measures levels of confidence among firms, found that a small companies "are braced for a contraction in the size of their business in the first three months of 2025".

The problem is that contraction is great as long as it’s not your business that is contracting.

The report showed a decline in both exports and imports of goods - contractions in activity that nonetheless had a roughly neutral impact on the overall growth figure.

A similar contraction hit gross domestic product, which shrank from a high of $67 billion to less than a sixth of that.

“This all comes on top of a contraction in the industry. All of these factors together have just been devastating.”