Negative rates failing to spur investment at Europe's firms

Stockholm

A PROLONGED period of negative interest rates is failing to revive investment at Europe's companies, with the vast majority of businesses in the region saying the stimulus measures have had no affect at all on their growth plans.

Some 84 per cent of the 9,440 companies surveyed by Swedish debt collector Intrum Justitia AB for its European Payment Report 2016 say low interest rates haven't affected their willingness to invest. And perhaps more alarmingly, the number is up from 73 per cent last year.