(Reuters) – U.S. small businesses reduced borrowing in November, sending the Thomson Reuters/PayNet Small Business Lending Index to its lowest level in eight months, according to data released on Tuesday.
The reading of 116 compares to a downwardly revised October reading of 129.7. The index was set at 100 at its January 2005 launch, and peaked two years later at 131.7 before plummeting to about half that level around the time of the Great Recession.
Still, the index was up 1 percent from a year earlier.
“We don’t see this as a sea change or an inflection point,” PayNet founder Bill Phelan said, noting that the index rose by double digits for most of the year. “This is a pause more than anything and it’s probably pretty healthy.”
