Fifty-nine percent said they were not interested in a loan, unchanged from March. Thirty percent reported all their credit needs were met, up a point from the prior month. A net negative 19% expected higher inflation-adjusted sales, down four points from March. The share of owners expecting better business conditions over the next six months fell two points to a net negative 49%. "As we've argued before, though, measures of sentiment are often a poor guide of what is likely to happen in the economy because it tells us more about how business owners are feeling, rather than what they are doing." economist at Oxford Economics in New York. "The decline is broadly in line with the weakness in consumer sentiment seen over the past year," said Michael Pearce, lead U.S. While the survey hinted at an economic slowdown, economists cautioned against reading too much into the drop in sentiment. A fight over raising the federal government's borrowing cap is also helping to cloud the economy. Higher interest rates tied to the Federal Reserve's battle to tame inflation combined with tighter credit conditions following recent financial market stress are stoking fears of a recession this year. It was the 16th straight month that the index remained below the 49-year average of 98. The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) said on Tuesday its Small Business Optimism Index dropped 1.1 points to 89.0 last month, the lowest level since January 2013. small business confidence fell to more than a 10-year low in April on worries about the near-term economic outlook and persistent worker shortages, but there were few signs that businesses were having difficulties accessing credit.
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