Hesitant firms not borrowing
Lending to businesses continues to fall despite efforts to incentivise banks to lend, a Bank of England report said yesterday.
Net lending to all firms fell by £3.9bn in the second quarter of 2014. This comes in spite of an extension of the Bank’s Funding for Lending scheme to January 2015.
Lending to small and medium enterprises also declined. The report suggests they are trying to pay down debt instead of borrowing.