The UK tech sector recorded the best growth performance for almost a decade in the last quarter of 2013, according to the Tech Monitor UK report by KPMG and Markit.
The report also recorded the fastest profitability improvement, as reported by UK tech firms, for six years, and a ‘solid rate of tech sector job creation maintained’ at the end of 2013.
In December, the index measuring tech business activity came above the crucial 50.0 no-change threshold for the sixteenth successive month. At 61.0, this was the fastest since February 2004.
Rule Britannia
The findings are the latest in a series of positive pieces of news for British tech.
A report released by Barclays yesterday placed tech as one of Britain’s most bullish sectors, predicting 71% of tech companies will increase wages in 2014.
And last week the UK was revealed to be the world’s leading e-commerce exporter, according to research released by OC&C Strategy Consultants and Google.
Look to the East
In a special feature of the report, the East of England was shown to be benefitting from the major hub of ‘Silicon Fen’ and South Cambridgeshire.
The report ranked the region third out of eleven GB regions for concentration of tech jobs.
Leading the recovery?
Tudor Aw, Head of Technology at KPMG, said the last quarter of 2013 saw “a sharp increase in business activity, a rise in new orders and an increase in profitability despite higher costs”.
He also praised tech firms for their “solid rates of job creation, well above the rates in other sectors of the economy”.