Business investment 'suffering'

News Article - 22 May 2012
Category:

Business investment is "really suffering" during the current recession, one sector commentator has claimed, which may be of concern to firms keen to monitor business progress.

Charles Davis, senior economist at the Centre for Economics and Business Research, said that funding was suffering due to the credit crunch's effect on companies' access to capital, along with the current "fairly dire" economic prospects of the UK.

"If you look across a wide range of business survey data, you will see that investment intentions for the year ahead are coming right back [to lower levels]," he added.

Mr Davis noted that the Bank of England was most likely aware of this and said that falling investment would be seen as a factor that plays a role in what may now be a "significant and deep" recession.

The Office for National Statistics reported in last month that business investment fell by 3.9 per cent in the final quarter of 2008 and by 7.7 per cent compared to the final quarter of 2007.

Article keywords:

---

More industry news

• Think tank warns UK may have already slipped back into recession
• Growing demand for HR staff in technology and international sectors
• Boosting business growth a ‘priority’ to avoid Eurozone slowdown
• HMRC launches alternative disputes pilot scheme this week
• December employment statistics disregard gloomy recruitment predictions
• Eurozone manufacturing PMI shows modest improvement
• UK scores highly for economic governance by ratings agency
• Government launches two-year project focusing on manufacturing sector
• Burden of regulation on UK businesses ‘too high’

Back to news home page »