The finance chiefs of Britain’s biggest companies say their appetite for risk has returned, with a poll showing they believe access to bank lending will ease this year, enabling them to expand and hire more staff.
Britain’s economy reported some of the fastest growth of any major industrialised economy in the first nine months of last year. But the improvement was largely driven by consumers, and the Bank of England has warned that exports and business investment need to strengthen if growth is to be sustained.
Central bank figures released on Friday showed that business lending had slumped in November – its biggest fall since comparable figures began in May 2011 – with a lack of lending to larger firms being behind the sharp drop.
But in an encouraging sign, the Deloitte survey of 122 chief financial officers found that bank borrowing was now the most attractive source of funding, the first time they have said that since the financial crisis began.
Some 57 per cent of those surveyed said that, with credit easing and economic uncertainty retreating, now was a good time to take risk onto their balance sheets, the most positive response since the survey started six years ago.
... there has been a dramatic decline in perceptions of risk, particularly in relation to the euro zone, a big fall in the fears of recession and further improvements in credit availability
“There has been a dramatic change,” Ian Stewart, chief economist at Deloitte, said.
