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Business loans contract again
The Bank of England yesterday revealed official data from April which showed the weakest flow of net lending to businesses since June 2000, while net flows of consumer credit remained weak.
The data is a clear sign the credit crunch continues to hit businesses despite the efforts of policymakers to boost lending to cash-strapped companies. Net lending to private non-financial companies fell by £5.4bn in April, up 1.3 per cent on the same month in 2008.