The Discover Small
Business Watch is a monthly index of the
economic confidence of the nation's 22 million
businesses with five or fewer employees.
- Discover Financial Services reported its
first increase in six months in small-business
owners' confidence in the economy.
-
- The Riverwoods, Ill., company said Monday
that its Small Business Watch index climbed 4.6
points this month from last month, to 90.9, and
that many respondents expect the government's
efforts to boost the economy to help their
business.
-
- The index, which was pegged at 100 at its
inception in August 2006, had been sliding since
hitting 107.3 in July.
-
- The percentage of respondents who said the
economy is getting worse fell 7 points from
January, to 67%. The percentage who said they
expect business conditions to improve over the
next six months rose 3 points, to 34%, and the
percentage who plan to spend more to expand
their companies rose 5 points, to 33%.
-
- The survey of 1,000 small-business owners
found that respondents expect more benefit from
lower interest rates than from the stimulus
package the government hopes will spur consumer
spending. Fifty-nine percent of respondents said
the package would have no significant impact on
their businesses, 12% said it would affect their
businesses, and 29% said they were not certain.
"Small-business owners are seeing some of the
larger efforts being made to improve the
economy, such as the Fed interest rate cuts and
slowing down of downward momentum, so they
appear to be less apprehensive," Sastry
Rachakonda, Discover's director of business
credit cards, said in a press release.
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