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'Rising State costs crippling SMEs'

Thursday, February 21 12:00:22

Rising State costs are crippling SME, according to lobby group, ISME, in response to today's inflation figures.

It called on the Government to immediately tackle the costs under their control and warned that unless key costs, including transport, waste, energy and local charges are addressed, SMEs would be forced to close, resulting in further job losses.

According to ISME Chief Executive Mark Fielding, "The published inflation figures give a "false" picture of business inflation as the composite figures mask the true effect of State cost increases. The Government policy of an economy based on export driven growth is a nonsense when they continue to allow state influenced cost increases to undermine competitiveness. Companies are continuously attempting to reduce their costs to compete but are hampered by cost increases introduced by the State".

"The erosion of competitiveness is one of the biggest immediate threats to business. It is vitally important that the root causes of the increases in production costs witnessed over the last number of years, mainly Government controlled costs, are brought into line, otherwise we run the risk of continuing to price ourselves out of the market," he continued.