The Bank of England's latest investigation into conditions for small businesses has turned up a 'mixed picture' of results.
The report, which is based on a range of surveys covering the second and third quarters of 2003, concludes that start-up rates have climbed dramatically and increasing numbers of SMEs are reporting growth.
But it also reveals that small manufacturers continue to struggle and SMEs in general are recovering from the global economic downturn at a slower rate than their big-business counterparts.
This is illustrated in the Confederation of British Industry's (CBI) latest quarterly survey of small manufacturers published in July. It shows that firms faced an ongoing fall in the volume of new orders and that bosses expected the drops to continue.
