In this month’s business overview, we take a closer look at the Autumn Statement and consider its real impact on business investment It’s a well-worn joke that asking two experts about the economy is likely to get you at least three opinions or that if you laid all the world’s economists end to end, they still wouldn’t reach a conclusion.
Our latest report into the finances and prospects of the hospitality sector published earlier this month showed that the industry’s borrowings had fallen by 18% in the last fourteen months. Only the very smallest pub, bar and restaurant businesses saw their debts rise and then only marginally. While debts still remain higher than pre-pandemic, this drop is nevertheless welcome news
Business investment, which accounts for about 13 per cent of the UK’s GDP, has lagged behind other developed economies for decades. It has been an average of 36% lower than other members of the G7 since 1990 according to a report published this year by The International Monetary Fund (IMF). Looking at the latest disruptions caused by Brexit, the pandemic
When the corporate insolvency statistics for July 2023 were released by the Insolvency Service, all the focus by commentators was on the macro aspects of the numbers. Insolvencies for the whole of the UK totalled 1,837, a slight dip of 4% from July 2022 but still well ahead of July 2019 when failures were 18% lower. Cumulatively for the first
The latest figures from UK Finance on business finance and from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) on investment have left pundits wondering where the UK economy is headed. Positive as some aspects of the UK Finance statistics may be, they still give some cause for concern. By contrast the IPPR numbers are unambiguously poor. Appetite for funding UK
The economic news might not be as gloomy as a few months ago, but the UK’s GDP is flatlining and the IMF is predicting we will be one of the worst performers in 2023 among leading economies. Surely this is no time for ambitious expansion or opportunistic acquisitions? Or is it? After the challenges of the pandemic and the impact
