"Within the corporate sector, demand for credit from small businesses decreased significantly, reduced slightly for medium-sized companies, and was broadly unchanged for large companies"
- Bank of England
Lending to Britain's businesses continued deteriorating in February, even despite all efforts done by both the Bank of England and the Treasury to boost lending to spur the flagging economy. Total lending to nation's businesses dropped by £2.8 billion between January and February, after a monthly drop of £0.3 billion in January, and a more significant decline of £1.7 billion in the last month of 2012. Despite record-low borrowing costs for small and medium businesses, the demand for credits has tumbled sharply.
"Within the corporate sector, demand for credit from small businesses decreased significantly, reduced slightly for medium-sized companies, and was broadly unchanged for large companies," the Bank of England said. "Looking forward, lenders in the Credit Conditions Survey expected credit availability for small and medium-sized firms to be little changed in the coming quarter."
Also Friday, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde had expressed concerns over the recovery of the U.K. economy. Earlier in April, the IMF has downgraded its growth forecast for the U.K., as now nation's gross domestic product is expected to expand only by 0.7% this year.
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