You can hardly have missed it but just about all the statistics to do with business and the economy are trending up. Job advertisements are continuing to rise with independent research showing the last two months recording the biggest lifts for over a year – an average of four percent. Retail rises yet again with the last monthly gain being one percent. The vital business services sector, according to its own industry group, is slowly turning around with last month’s new orders showing small growth. Even manufacturing which has been through one of its worst periods ever, is now posting nearly a one percent growth following nearly two years of decline.

Credit to the private sector continues to slowly grow, lead by housing where even the investor sector has finally swung around to now record a 0.4 increase. Businesses are paying faster with figures from Dun & Bradstreet showing payment terms across the board have reduced by nearly three days to an average of just over 54 days in their last quarter.