Business leaders in Birmingham and Solihull say only growth in
the private sector will keep the economy on its tentative upward
trend.
Birmingham and Solihull Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCI)
anticipates that interest rates will stay at 0.5 per cent and that
the one-year-old quantitative easing programme will also remain the
same.
Paul Bassi, president of Birmingham Chamber of Commerce and
Industry (BCI), said: "Owing to a spate of better than
expected data from the Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index,
the growth of GDP to 0.3 per cent and strong export figures, the
economy has shown a small improvement.
"It is crucial that the government maintains this fragile
recovery by continuing to encourage economic activity. In the
last few months we have seen temporary VAT cuts, the car scrappage
scheme, which will finish at the end of March, and public spending
brought forward in an attempt to beat the recession.
"BCI is urging businesses to sign up on-line to a major petition
launched by British Chambers of Commerce to reverse the one per
cent employer NI increase planned for April 2011 which is a clear
'tax on jobs'.
"While the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee (MPC)
maintains its status quo, more needs to be done to feed the tender
shoots of investment by increasing access to funding."