SMEs confident of survival despised double-dip fears

Four in ten small and medium sized businesses expect the UK to slip back into recession in 2011.

Despised the lack of confidence surrounding economic growth this year, however, 98 per cent of companies are confident of their business survival, according to the latest Business Confidence Survey by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA).

One third of businesses report they have already lost revenue as a direct result of public sector spending cuts. Furthermore, one in five expect the government cutbacks to have a knock on effect on their number of full - time employees in 2011.

Operations functions will be hardest hit (84 per cent) followed by finance (39 per cent), IT (33 per cent) marketing (30 per cent) and human resources (28 per cent).

Ray Perry, executive director of the brand, profile and marketing arm of top, says, ' The survey this time around has produced to varied bag of results. Although many of the respondents felt that the UK was likely to plunge back into recession, the majority still feel confident of their own business survival but at the same time expect to cut their number of full - time employees in order to achieve this.'