Commenting on the publication of new UK Gross Domestic Product (GDP) statistics which show that the UK economy grew by 0.2 per cent in the second quarter of 2011, Colin Borland, the Federation of Small Businesses' (FSB) head of external affairs in Scotland, said: 
 

"Today's GDP figures are disappointing if not surprising – the FSB's own business confidence figures shows that small business confidence fell sharply in the second quarter of 2011. What is more worrying from a Scottish perspective is that our figures demonstrate that small business confidence is much lower outside London and the South East. This could mean that even today's modest figures are artificially high for areas far from the capital.

"Even if we pin the blame on one off events, government badly needs to find ways to improve confidence and kick-start the recovery in the short-term. The FSB believes that cutting VAT to five per cent in the construction and tourism sectors will provide the much-needed boost to both consumer and business confidence that today's figures show our economic recovery needs."

ENDS

-The FSB is Scotland's largest direct-member business organisation, representing over 20,000 Scottish members in every sector of the economy. UK-wide, it has over 200,000 members.

-For the FSB's Quarter 2 2011 ‘Voice of Small Business' Index – see: http://www.fsb.org.uk/policy/assets/fsb%20q2%202011%20finalweb.pdf

Contacts:

Stuart Mackinnon:     0141 221 0775 / 07917 628 995 stuart.mackinnon@fsb.org.uk
Colin Borland:           0141 221 0775 / 07917 628 939 colin.borland@fsb.org.uk

ISDN line available:    0141 229 0253