Red tape hindering economic growth, warns business group
THE ECONOMY will barely grow this year if the government does not cut regulation and invest in infrastructure, the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) warns today.
Growth will come in at just 0.1 per cent this year, the business group declared, down from the 0.6 per cent it predicted in its previous quarterly forecast.
Weak domestic and export demand as well as public sector job cuts will push unemployment up to 2.9m in the third quarter of the year, the BCC believes, while low growth will leave the budget deficit at £98bn for 2012-13, £6bn above the official forecast from the OBR.
“Without the government working together with business, the economy will continue to bump along the bottom for longer than we’d all like,” said BCC boss John Longworth.
“We want to see measures like the creation of a business bank, which would provide capital to new and growing companies, and real domestic deregulation.”
“These measures can be achieved while sticking to the aims of deficit reduction,” he added.