Richard Hattersley, editor of AccountingWEB, had glum news at the start of the year. He said December’s corporate insolvencies showed the effect of the toxic combination of high interest rates, inflation, rising energy costs, pressures on supply chains and the aftermath of Covid and Brexit as the number of businesses going bust continued to hit record levels.
The insolvency service reported that in December last year there were 1,964 company insolvencies in England and Wales – 32% higher than the previous year and 76% higher than pre-pandemic numbers.
But, as snowdrops appear, so does the economy
On Wednesday (February 15) the FTSE 100 share index passed 8,000 points for the first time, as fears of a global recession ease, Graeme Wearden and Jasper Jolly wrote in the Financial Times. Shares were boosted as traders welcomed Wednesday’s release of better than forecast inflation numbers, raising hopes the Bank of England will not be bounced into hiking its rate further than markets are anticipating.
The consumer prices index fell to 10.1% for January, down from 10.5% in December and more than the 10.3% that had been expected. This was driven by decreases in fuel prices and the cost of dining out, Michael Race reported in BBC News
Writing in The Spectator the same day, Kate Andrews said that the latest labour market update, published by the Office of National Statistics on February 15 shows unemployment rising by 0.1% between October and December to 3.7%. But this quarterly rise is offset by a fall in economic inactivity, down 0.3% percentage points, largely thanks to young workers entering or re-entering the workforce … slowly workers in all age groups (but primarily younger) are shifting from not looking for work to seeking it actively with a “record high movement of people between July…to December 2022.”
Whither your business?
Forecast 5, the budgeting and forecasting program, is an essential tool to establish the future of your business. Its clear financial reports show precisely where opportunities lie or what threats might mean to your company—and you can adjust your scenarios at the click of a mouse, rather than the tedious process of re-entering all data each time you want to change your calculations.
Click here to download your free, 21-day trial of Forecast 5, the most acclaimed forecasting, budgeting and reporting software.
Johnny Kipps & Jill Day
