UK corporate borrowing appetite at 14-year low

UK companies’ appetite for borrowing and issuing bonds has fallen to a 14-year low. According to a quarterly survey of corporate chief financial officers conducted by Deloitte, UK companies’ appetite for borrowing and issuing bonds has fallen to its lowest level since the 2008 global financial crisis. Demand for credit has also fallen below average levels. Almost 70% of surveyed chief financial officers rated using credit as “costly”. Only 28% of respondents said they expected their companies’ demand for credit to increase in the next 12 months. In addition, 45% of chief financial officers said it was becoming more difficult to obtain new credit. Deloitte survey respondents’ inflation expectations for one year ahead were 5.8% and for two years ahead, they expected 3.3%. 78 chief financial officers participated in the survey, 17 of whom had companies in the FTSE 100 index and 32 in the FTSE 250 index. The survey was conducted between December 6-16.