Hedging is back in fashion
Hedging may have fallen slightly out of favour in 2017, but we are now seeing SMEs protecting themselves again across most major currencies.Growing overseas markets
The percentage of SMEs making international transactions in an average month has remained at 26% for the second month running, which represents a decline of 2% from the same period last year, and 10% from 2016. However, it’s not all doom and gloom; the average value of the trades has increased to £47,750, so those businesses already trading are making more and higher value transactions. WorldFirst suggests this indicates a change in sentiment towards international business. Jeremy Cook, chief economist at WorldFirst, said: “After a year of stagnation, it is positive to see a pick up, however small, in international trade. Whilst unlikely that we will get to the levels of SME trading abroad pre-2017, there are still 1.5 million UK SMEs trading internationally and in the first quarter of 2018, they made international transactions of over £71 billion each month.Looking beyond the EU
According to WorldFirst’s own client data, the US is the UK’s top trading partner – 12% of all international payments are made there. Germany and China come in second and third respectively. Meanwhile, France has dropped from second place in Q4 2017, to sixth place – perhaps suggesting that overall, small businesses are showing reduced dependence on the EU and looking increasingly to the Far East and the US. Cook said: “There clearly is genuine appetite amongst a cross-section of UK SMEs to trade internationally and expand their business beyond these shores. What these SMEs need now is the support, education and right partners in the right markets to make their exporting dream become a reality.” With that said, it’s not worth writing Europe off entirely: “Europe looks to remain an important market for British small businesses so enough must be done to make it easy to sell to the rest of Europe after the UK extracts herself from the European Union.”Share this story