Majority of small businesses believe US is in recession
By Safiyah Riddle
(Reuters) — More than half of U.S. small business owners believe the economy is already in a recession, marking a slight decrease between July and April, despite most firms reporting their own financial condition was strong, a survey released on Monday showed.
The survey conducted in July from the National Federation of Independent Business focused mainly on small businesses' views on the state of banking and their credit needs, and also showed small businesses are much less worried about the health of their bank than they were in the immediate aftermath of this spring's bank failures, including that of Silicon Valley Bank.
On the economy, 52% of small business owners said they believe the economy is already in a recession, down from 55% in April, the survey found. That belief comes despite broad signs of strength across the economy and growing body of evidence that the economy could avoid a long-anticipated downturn.
Recent indicators have shown strong retail sales and rising spending on services, the two largest small business industries. Moreover, businesses see their own financial condition as strong and their local economies relatively healthy.
For instance, more than two-thirds of all firms said that the financial state of business was «excellent» or «good,» a slight decline since April, but still strong as consumer spending continues to surpass expectations, and expectations for third-quarter gross domestic product growth continues to get revised upwards. On top of that, 80% of firms reported that the local economy was at least «okay.»
Optimism about the banking sector improved as well, recovering from the second-biggest U.S. banking collapse on record in March, as over half of all owners were
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