Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have come through three years of global investment slump relatively unscathed, closing the profitability gap substantially between them and big businesses. But larger companies are likely to make the most headway during the present recovery phase. So says HSBC Bank in its economic outlook report for 2004.
Dennis Turner, chief economist at HSBC Bank’s business economics unit, said: “The recent global downturn was the result of a slump in investment spending, and therefore took its biggest toll on large businesses. This was in stark contrast to the recession in the UK in the early 1990s, which was triggered by a consumer crunch and therefore had a severe impact on small firms, which tend to play a more important role in these markets.
