The latest official figures continue to show that the economy is on an upward curve. Business lending is on the rise, retailers like Argos and Homebase are reporting chirpy sales figures and car sales are booming.
Chancellor George Osborne is, not surprisingly, curbing his instincts to yell “I told you so” from the Treasury roof, and instead caveats the message that the economy is doing well by adding “we still have a huge deficit and the job is very far from done”.
So it’s certainly not all sunshine and roses. Rising prices act as a brake to improving profitability, and one Wealden Business Group member is reporting that his professional indemnity insurance premiums have reached stratospheric proportions as the threat of llitigation by clients follows the American trend.
Nevertheless, as the Assocation of Chartered Accountants insists that the UK “is becoming fertile ground for new, small businesses,” the Kentish Express featured front-page coverage of the fast-growing Old Dairy Brewery investing £450,000 in new premises next to Tenterden station.
Managing director Lionel Fretz is quoted as saying that Old Dairy is planning to be one of the top 10 independent brewerys in the next five years.
Let’s raise a glass to that – and to continued economic good news.
