THREE QUARTERS OF Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are not planning to give staff wage hikes in 2014, a survey by Viking has found.

Overall, 46 per cent of business owners surveyed said that business had improved in the last three months, with the most positive returns in Connacht, where 52 per cent said they had registered an uptick.

Results for Leinster were less encouraging at 41 per cent, while 62 per cent of respondents from Ulster and Munster said that business had declined in the first three months of the year.

The good news continued to roll in Connacht, with 97 per cent of SMEs saying that they expect growth in the year overall, compared to 59 per cent in Ulster, 53 per cent in Leinster and 44 per cent in Munster.

Viking director Michael Walby said:

The overall economic picture may be gradually improving with optimisim slowly building, but most small business owners remain very cautious and we expect that to remain the case in the medium term.

Problem areas

Half of SMEs said that attracting new business to ensure growth of their companies was the biggest challenge for the year ahead. A further ten per cent said that reducing costs was their number one issue, while nine per cent said that sector-specific sluggishness was their main concern.

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