Optimism among American small businesses rose marginally last month, with inflation being one of the key challenges, the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) said in a May 12 statement.
“The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index rose 0.1 points in April to 95.9, below its 52-year average of 98.0 for the second consecutive month,” the federation said.
The index is based on surveys of NFIB members. In their responses, 16 percent of owners cited inflation as their “single most important business problem,” up by two points from March.
A net 30 percent of owners raised their average selling prices last month, which was “well above its historical average,” according to the federation. Over the next three months, 27 percent of owners plan to raise prices….