A Cloudy Outlook for Growth  25 Jun 2012

As Britain endures yet another month of rain, and summer is postponed once again, prospects for growth appear to be equally elusive, and the economic outlook looks decidedly cloudy. Yet there are some bright glimmers of hope appearing, and some clouds even bring opportunity.

A Heavy Cloud over Growth

The Eurozone Crisis continues to cast a heavy cloud over growth prospects.

The Eurozone sovereign debt crisis continues to cast a heavy cloud over economic growth prospects, not only for Eurozone countries, but also the UK, the USA and the wider world.

The news that 15 major banks have been downgraded by credit ratings agency Moody’s underlines the ongoing crisis in the Eurozone. While prospects for Greece staying in the Euro have improved following new elections, Spain has become the latest country to experience unsustainable borrowing costs for its sovereign debt, and has had to seek help for its banks from the European central bank.

Breaking the Gloom

British Prime Minister David Cameron has called on European leaders to get a grip on the crisis, and US President Barak Obama has called for decisive action. A Eurozone banking union now looks set to be approved, and Germany is set to allow the Eurozone bailout fund to be used to buy troubled countries’ debt.

The leaders of the four largest Eurozone countries, Germany, France, Spain and Italy, met to agree a plan for growth. Christine Lagarde of the IMF had called for the sharing of government debt and the underwriting of stricken banks, but Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany was unwilling to commit German taxpayers to this. What was agreed was a growth fund of 130 billion euros, equal to about 1% of the economic output of the Eurozone.

Brighter Prospects

In the UK, the government has sought to boost prospects for growth: Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne unveiled a £140 billion emergency lending scheme to be run by the Bank of England. Business Secretary Vince Cable launched the GrowthAccelerator programme, designed to help up to 26,000 of England’s brightest businesses achieve their ambition and potential.

The Silver Lining: Cloud Computing

Cloud computing has many benefits for small and medium sized businesses.

While the Eurozone crisis has cast an ominous cloud over economic growth, clouds come in all shapes and sizes. A cloud which is proving very beneficial to business is Cloud Computing.

Cloud Computing refers to the provision of computing power as a hosted service through the internet, 'the Cloud' being a common symbol for the internet.

Cloud Computing has many benefits for small and medium sized businesses, and is set to boost economic activity and jobs in Europe and around the world.

According to Michael Carter, chief executive at Netpremacy Global Services, hosted services, Benefits of Cloud Computing to SMBs include:

• Helping businesses reduce capital expenditure.
• Companies pay for the IT services that they use.
• Seamless scalability without the need to purchase additional expensive hardware.
• Allows employees to access files and documents from any location.
• Ease of implementation.
• Helps level the playing field for small start-ups.

Cloud Computing is driving success for Europe's small businesses.

Bizzy – the Cloud Service for Growth

Bizzy.co.uk offers business information in the Cloud, including:

Company Documents – official documents of millions of companies in the UK and Europe.

Credit Reports – Up to date creditworthiness information on millions of companies.

New! Bizzy API – Enables apps to be built based on Bizzy’s cloud business information service.

New! Bizzy Domain – Vital contact information obtained directly from companies’ websites.

A bizzy PLUS subscription costs just £19.99 for twelve months unlimited access.

Don’t let the clouds of economic doubt overcome you. Take advantage today of the new opportunities provided by Cloud Computing.

Bizzy – your business information service in the Cloud!

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Posted in bizzy blog on 25 Jun 2012.