The study, conducted for the Department for Business (BERR) in February 2009 and published on Friday (15 May), found that only 23% of SMEs had recorded an increase in turnover during the period, compared to 43% that had reported a decline.

However, there was some evidence that the collapse of business confidence was stabilising as only 22% of those surveyed anticipated reducing staff numbers during the next 12 months, compared with 24% in December 2008.

In addition, 25% of respondents believed that their turnover would increase in the next 12 months – compared to 16% in December – with 33% anticipating further falls, compared with 41% in the previous survey.

Andrew Brown, corporate affairs director at the BPIF, said there did not appear to be much confidence in the print industry at the moment.

"Talking to people in the sector, it still seems to pretty desperate and there is not much sign of a recovery as yet," he said.

"It is possible that other sectors are boosted by a depletion of stock and the need to re-stock but this trend does not really affect print."

Small UK businesses are facing numerous challenges to trading as the recession continues to bite, orders decline, and clients alter payment terms.

This was reflected in the survey with 12% of respondents citing cash flow as "the main obstacle to the success of the business", up from 10%, with 10% of those surveyed claiming "most customers" were late payers.

Brown said that cash flow was a "very significant problem in the print industry".

"There is a lot of evidence that businesses are delaying payment to their clients," he said. "This may be as they are nervous about their customers paying."

He added that initiatives such as the prompt payment code were helping the problem.

Numbers of respondents citing levels of regulation as the biggest obstacle to the success of a business climbed 5% to 12%. The majority still believed that the economy remained the biggest obstacle with 39% of the vote, down from 41%.