Credit crunch eases

There are signs that the credit crunch may have become less severe for some businesses, according to the latest CBI figures published on Saturday 4 April.

Firms were less negative in the March CBI Access to Finance Survey than they were in February about the availability of new and existing credit over the previous three months.

For new credit, the net percentage of firms saying availability had deteriorated in the past three months was a balance of -36 per cent, compared with -59 per cent in February. For existing credit, the balance was -16 per cent compared with -25 per cent.

Ian McCafferty, the CBI's chief economic adviser, said: 'Fewer firms said in March that the availability of credit had got worse for them in the past three months than did so in February or January. The view that the pace of deterioration is easing correlates with what businesses are starting to tell us on the ground.