Current Affairs

The number of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) using the internet and social networking sites has risen sharply over the past year, a recent business survey by PeoplePerHour has shown.

House sales were up in January as an increased number of first-time buyers made the most of the stamp duty holiday which is to end in March, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) says.

UK retailers are increasing cash reserves rather than investing in business expansion and job creation as a result of economic uncertainty, an independent study by Oxford Economics for the British Retail Consortium (BRC) has found.

The unemployment rate in the UK has reached 8.4 per cent of the economically active population, figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) indicate.

More small and medium sized enterprise (SME) owners are dipping into their personal savings to finance their businesses, research by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has revealed.

Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation in the UK has fallen from 4.2 per cent in December to a 14 month low of 3.6 per cent in January, figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) indicate.

Five major UK banks have failed to meet their 2011 lending targets to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) as laid out in Project Merlin.

The Chancellor needs to step up proposals to help small businesses if they are to see a genuine change in growth, says the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB).

The Bank of England has decided to extend its quantitative easing (QE) programme by a further £50 billion.

Dr Adam Posen, a member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee, has lashed out at banks for not lending enough to small and medium-size enterprises, calling them 'reluctant risk adverse jerks'.