Finance Wales, the Welsh Assembly Government’s funding arm, has announced that it invested £19.8 million in the six months to the end of September, up from £12.4 million in the same period a year earlier.

Investment director Mike Owen said: “Activity levels are up, and businesses are back in growth mode. We are likely to invest more than double the £19.8 million total in the full year to the end of March; the first two quarters are always the slowest.”

Mr Owen said that the organisation’s largest fund, the European-backed Wales Jeremie Fund, is now in its final year. “We are on track to have a replacement for Jeremie by next April, but it will not be a disaster if we don’t. We have other funds.”

Mr Owens said his organisation’s loans and investments helped to create or safeguard 1,263 jobs in the six months to September. It plans to move its Cardiff headquarters from Park Place to a new base at 1 Capital Quarter in December.