The UK’s small and medium sized firms are continuing to demonstrate a strong pace of growth, with London’s small businesses leading the way, it has been found.
The last three months of 2006 saw the sharpest rate of growth of small businesses in two and a half years, the PKF SME Index, which surveys 800 firms in the construction, manufacturing and service sectors, has revealed.
The service sector saw the largest increase of new businesses, when the increase in business activity hit 57.2 (where marks above 50 indicate expansion and marks below 50 indicate contraction), the strongest increase since 2004.
London, along with Wales, the South West and the South East, had the strongest performing small businesses. However, growth was marked across the UK as a whole.
PKF partner for growing business, Stuart Barnsdall, commented:
“In a quarter where the Bank of England raised interest rates for a second time and where our survey respondents nearly all commented on the continued increase in the price of raw materials, it is impressive to see that small and medium sized enterprises continue to perform strongly.
“The service sector stood out in particular and, while a lot of this was down to the usual additional Christmas business, successful marketing campaigns and new sales procedures were also a factor.”
Barnsdall warned however, that ‘with interest rates expected to rise again… it will be interesting to see what happens in Q1 2007.”
© Crimson Business Ltd. 2007
