Backing Britain’s Small Businesses: Funding Circle’s 2023 Impact
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) continued to face challenges in 2023, characterised by tighter monetary policy placing pressure on their finances. Demand concerns were at the forefront for SMEs in 2023, whereas in previous years, supply chain issues and rising costs were their primary concerns.
Despite the challenging economic conditions, analysis by Oxford Economics finds that Funding Circle’s lending maintained a significant economic footprint. Lending to SMEs by Funding Circle supported a £6.9 billion contribution to UK GDP, sustained over 95,800 jobs, and was associated with activity stimulating £1.6 billion in tax revenues in 2023.
Further to this, there was evidence of green shoots emerging. More than three quarters (78%) of SMEs felt that the economic challenges they faced during the year increased the resilience of their business, and the share of SMEs that reported growth within their business in the first half of the year increased to the highest level seen since 2019.
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The experts behind the research
Our Economic Consulting team are world leaders in quantitative economic analysis, working with clients around the globe and across sectors to build models, forecast markets and evaluate interventions using state-of-the art techniques. Lead consultants on this project were:
Rosie Nolan
Senior Economist
Jai Patel
Assistant Economist
Stephen Foreman
Associate Director
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