Business News Round Up (10/01/2022)
FinTech firms surge amid demand for digital solutions
Scotland has seen a 27% surge in the number fintech companies over the past year as the move towards a digital economy picks up pace and demand rises for innovative solutions. There are now 190 financial technology enterprises north of the border compared with 147 a year ago and just 26 when the cluster organisation FinTech Scotland launched in January 2018. The growth comes alongside the Innovate Finance announcement last week that investment in fintech firms across the UK jumped by more than 200% in 2021 compared with the previous year. Fintech Scotland activities have been bolstered by increasing collaboration with 30 strategic partners across financial services, global technology and professional services, academia, and public sector.
Majority of small businesses across the UK have no clue what ‘levelling up’ actually means
More than half of all small firms in the UK have no clue what levelling up the country means for their business, new research suggests. Moreover, a survey of 500 small to medium-sized businesses (SMEs) found that fewer than one in three believed the Government will deliver on its levelling up agenda. Nucleus Commercial Finance said its study found half of SMEs were confused about the Government’s plans, especially among younger business owners. Just over half of respondents said regional inequalities were affecting their ability to attract investment or hire skilled workers. Chirag Shah, chief executive of Nucleus Commercial Finance, said: “Despite the levelling up agenda being a central idea of Boris Johnson’s Government, SME leaders remain confused about what this is and how it will impact their business.
Price rises and renewed uncertainty slows North West business growth
The growth of business activity in the North West slowed down in December, according to new figures. NatWest’s latest Regional PMI said the result was due to rising prices, supply-side constraints, and renewed uncertainty. The headline North West Business Activity Index – a seasonally adjusted index that measures the month-on-month change in the combined output of the region’s manufacturing and service sectors – registered 53.1 in December. Although still above the 50.0 mark that separates growth from contraction, it was down from 57.6 in November to signal a notable loss of growth momentum as the year drew to a close. The region’s slowdown mirrored the trend recorded for the UK as a whole. NatWest added that the December data was a tenth consecutive monthly rise in the level of new business received by firms in the North West, as demand conditions continued to recover following the lockdowns earlier in the pandemic.
https://www.business-live.co.uk/economic-development/price-rises-renewed-uncertainty-slows-22672824
Wave of staff absences set to wipe off £35bn from UK economy
A wave of staff absences triggered by Omicron sweeping across the UK could shave £35bn off the British economy, according to new figures released today. The loss in output caused by workers being forced to self-isolate after contracting Covid-19 may wipe off around 8.8 per cent of January and February’s combined gross domestic product (GDP), reveals new research carried out by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR). The more than eight per cent hit to the economy is based on an assumption that 25 per cent of the workforce is away from work. Some 2.6 per cent, or around £10bn, would still be wiped off output in January and February even if just eight per cent of the workforce was absent. The rate of absenteeism has soared after the more transmissible Omicron strain of coronavirus entered the UK, hamstringing businesses from delivering normal services.