Economic Advisory Group review
In 2012, the Economic Advisory Group (EAG) undertook a review of access to finance for businesses within Northern Ireland as part of its work programme for 2012/2013.
The primary objective of the review was to consider the availability of finance to Northern Ireland Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), the level of uptake and the potential reasons for deficiencies in the market. The results of this survey were published in March 2013 in an EAG report.
2014 update
As this exercise was completed two years ago, EAG considered it appropriate to re-run the survey to gauge the extent to which conditions in relation to access to finance may have changed. Analytical Services Unit (ASU) in DETI was tasked with taking forward the 2014 update on behalf of EAG. The quantitative evidence was gathered in an independent survey of just over 1,000 SMEs undertaken in conjunction with InterTradeIreland.
The report on the 2014 survey is available to download:
Business access to finance 2014