The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) and the British Chamber of Commerce (BCC) have both expressed concern over the announcement from the Bank of England (BoE) yesterday, which increased interest rates to 0.75%.

The groups stated that the move will mean higher debt costs for many businesses as they try to continue to fight through the economic consequences of the pandemic with the BCC stating that the move was ‘ill-timed against a backdrop of growing domestic and global headwinds’.

In a statement released by the FSB, national chair Martin McTague stated that SMEs were being constantly ‘undermined by a vicious cycle of rising costs’ as they try to make up for the time lost over the last two years of the Covid-19 pandemic.

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