UK economy in “early stage of economic recovery” after 0.4% growth in February

The UK economy grew in February by 0.4%

According to National Bureau of Statistics (ONS) figures, GDP fell by 2.2% in January and then increased by 0.4% in February

The modest rise in GDP is a positive step towards showing signs of the early stages of an economic recovery.

While the unemployment rate remains low, much of the country is reopened and vaccinations are administered extensively across the land, the economy has been like a coiled spring as lenders flush with liquidity in a low-yield environment prepare to deploy capital to support resilient business sectors. Lenders and agile, resilient companies alike have been awaiting a directive on which sectors remain a Government priority and the introduction of a new recovery loan scheme (RLS) will provide the necessary catalyst many sectors need to living off an ever-increasing debt pile. The BBLS and CBILS played instrumental roles in keeping many resilient SMEs alive and acted as important triage systems to identify and support viable businesses that needed credit, and we are pleased to see the Government look beyond this triage phase and instead identify, prioritise and protect our most resilient individual business sectors and segments.

At Conister we have delivered upon all of our initial objectives. We increased our initial allocation limit substantially to £30 million for the CBILS and BBLS schemes and duly expect to lend that total as we continue to support the SME market. Conister will continue to work alongside Government and traditional lenders, to support British businesses.