With the fallout from the credit crunch beginning to be seen in many areas of the economy, the next few months should give some indication of how -and by how much - the profession will suffer. Using the results of this year's survey of the Top 60 accountancy firms in the UK as a guide, though, the future is suddenly looking less rosy. After a couple of years of strong fee income growth, this year's results show an overall increase in fee income among the Top 60 of 6.4%. In any other circumstances this would be a good result, but with nerves jangling over the state of the economy, it may well be taken as an omen of things to come - particularly when compared with overall fee income growth last year, which was 13.8%. Overall, performance among the Top 60 is still good, with only a handful of firms reporting negative growth (and generally because they have disposed of part of their business). A slowdown in growth in some of the key numbers, however, is a cause for concern.
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