February Investment News

March 4th, 2010

Economic Indicators:

UK

  • Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased 0.1% in the fourth quarter of 2009, compared with a decrease of 0.2% in the third quarter.
  • CPI annual inflation was 3.5% in January, up from 2.9% in December. The RPI annual inflation rate increased again in January. The increase of 1.3% in the RPI annual inflation rate to 3.7% in January from 2.4% in December follows a 2.1% increase in the annual rate between November and December.
  • Year on year, overall production output in December 2009 was 3.6% lower than in December 2008. Read the rest of this entry »

Time to automate your invoicing?

February 24th, 2010

According to research, nearly half of UK businesses still process invoices manually, when automating the process could result in considerable cost savings and greater efficiency. Read the rest of this entry »

Are you doing all you can to improve your creditworthiness?

February 23rd, 2010

Whether access to credit for smaller businesses has improved or not seems to depend on who you ask, but anecdotal evidence suggests it is still both difficult to access and expensive. 

To make matters worse, recent research reveals that an alarming 62% of SMEs Read the rest of this entry »

Raise VAT not national insurance, BCC urges

February 19th, 2010

The government should drop plans to raise national insurance contributions and instead should increase the rate of VAT to 18.5 per cent, the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) has argued.

The call from the BCC to switch the onus on tax rises from businesses to consumers came on the back of the group’s latest monthly survey of its members.

Read the rest of this entry »