The four main banks increased their lending to small businesses by nearly 15 percent last year. Whilst this is an impressive number and reflects the growth of this sector, the Council of Small Business is backing a call for a Senate inquiry into bank lending to small business. The lobby group claims this vital sector of the economy is being restricted by tightening bank credit and the constant moving of goalposts.

Almost half of all Australians expect to use more credit cards to pay their bills, according to new Dun & Bradstreet research. And the main use is with 18 to 34 year olds who are accumulating more debt at a ‘worrying’ rate.

New research has revealed that Australia’s superannuation savings are hugely inadequate and will leave the nation nearly $700 billion short of what its retirees need to live decently. The Federal Government figures are expected to now force the Canberra government to make big changes on super investments very soon.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) announced that it was putting the present cash rate of 3.75 percent on hold. This could possibly be due to the rise in inflation. The bad inflation forecasts of a few months ago look like being realized. Private industry specialists’ research has found the annualised inflation is now running at 2.6 percent. And while that is within the RBA’s stated comfort zone of 3 percent, research has also revealed the rate is rising much faster than forecast some months ago when the numbers started to trend upwards. However, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is forecasting the Australian economy will grow at nearly 3 percent this year. This figure is among the better economies in the developed world.

Fortunately Australia’s manufacturing sector has maintained its small growth of 2009. The Australian Industry Group’s figures say that January was a good month for new orders and exports. Construction and transport equipment were the main products in demand.