INDUSTRYNEWS
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MORE SMES BENEFIT AS LENDING
SCHEME HITS THREE YEAR HIGH
SMEs are increasingly able to
secure bank loans supported
by a Government-backed
scheme, as lending under the
scheme reached its highest
level since 2010.
Enterprise Finance Guarantee
(EFG) scheme lending figures
published recently, show banks
offered loans worth £111 million
to SMEs in the third quarter of
2013, the most since 2010. As
well as the banks offering more
‘Banks offered loans
worth £111 million’
and bigger EFG loans to SMEs,
the value of EFG loans drawn by
businesses this quarter was £87
million, the highest since 2011.
EFG is a demand-led scheme
which allows banks to lend to
SMEs who would otherwise
not receive credit, by providing
the banks with a government
guarantee for 75 per cent of the
loan value. Since May 2010, over
13,400 SMEs have been offered
EFG loans with a total value of
nearly £1.4 billion.
Business Secretary Vince
Cable said: “Ensuring small
businesses have access to the
finance they need in order
to grow and thrive remains a
crucial issue. The EFG scheme
is making a vital contribution
and businesses needing finance
should take heart that the
banks seem to have upped their
game.
“But there are long-standing
problems with the finance
markets which need addressing,
and that is why I have created
the British Business Bank. We
need a much more competitive
and diverse market, which
businesses of all sizes can have
confidence in and helps build a
stronger economy.”
Osborne wants above-inflation
minimum wage rise
Chancellor George Osborne has said he wants to see an aboveinflation increase in the minimum wage.
He said the “economy can now afford” to raise the rate,
currently set at £6.31 an hour for people over the age of 21,
£5.03 for 18 to 20 and £3.72 for under 18s.
The call followed Labour claims that the economic upturn has
not translated into improved living standards.
But Mr Osborne insisted it was Labour’s fault that they had
fallen and said he was aiming to make people better-off. The
Conservatives opposed the creation of the national minimum
wage in 1999.
The value of the minimum wage, paid to an estimated 1.35
million people, has fallen in real terms since the financial crisis of
2008. The current rate of inflation is 2%.
Mr Osborne said the NMW would have to increase to £7 an hour
by 2015 for its value to return to where it was before the economic
downturn struck.
But he stressed that the decision was not his but that of the
Low Pay Commission, overseen by Liberal Democrat Business
Secretary Vince Cable.
CHINA’S INVESTMENT IN BRITAIN
As the world’s second largest
economy, the fastest growing
economy in the G20 and with
more than a trillion dollars
sitting in various sovereign
wealth funds, China has
plenty to invest.
According to the Heritage
Foundation, in 2005, the
Chinese government
and Chinese companies
collectively invested about
$17bn (£11bn) in global assets,
Last year they invested almost
$130bn.
That sounds impressive, but
in the context of global world
trade or the economic output
of developed economies, it is
small change. For example,
the total amount of money
invested by China into Britain
over the past nine years
amounts to just 0.7% of the
UK’s total GDP in 2012.
Britain is one of the more
popular destinations for
Chinese investment. It is in
the top 10 nations globally
and attracts more than double
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‘In the top 10 nations
globally and attracts
more than double the
investment of any
other nation in Europe’
the investment of any other
nation in Europe. Globally,
Australia comes out top, but
even here Chinese investment
last year equated to just 0.6%
of the country’s annua