Nearly all mid-sized businesses surveyed by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants said they expected to survive the recession.

Of over 600 CIMA members surveyed across the UK and Ireland, 83% said they could weather the downturn, while 80% of management accountants were confident of keeping their job.

But many firms had already shed staff, and the majority reported a decrease of over 10% in either turnover or net profit in the past year. But they had not experienced a commensurate decline in costs, including overheads, supplier prices or basic salary packages. One-third of respondents had experienced cost hikes between 1 and 5% in these areas.

Most of the businesses said the government's 2.5% value added tax reduction has not had a measurable effect.