Apr 27, 2011

The SB Authority March Index Released, Covered by Bloomberg

Today, we released The Small Business Authority March Index, which showed continued gains in the overall health of the U.S. small business economy. For full details, be sure to check out our press release. Meanwhile, media giant and financial authority Bloomberg ran a story on the March index numbers. Read their story below: ________________________ By Alex Tanzi April 27 (Bloomberg) -- The Small Business Authority index rose in March, according to Newtek Business Services Inc. The Small Business Authority index strengthened to 103.7 in March from 103.1 a month earlier. The index consists of several indicators that are weighted into an index of the small business economy. According to NewtekOne, the index is highly correlated with GDP; the correlation coefficient is .835.

	March 2011	Feb. 2011	Jan. 2011	Dec. 2010	Nov. 2010	Oct. 2010	Sept. 2010	Aug. 2010	July 2010
Index	104	103	102	102	100	99	97	97	96
Monthly change	0.6%	0.8%	0.7%	1.7%	1.0%	1.6%	0.7%	0.7%	0.4%
3-mo. annualized	12.2%	15.4%	15.7%	15.0%	11.3%	9.3%	8.9%	12.0%	17.4%
Yearly change	12.9%	14.8%	15.6%	15.9%	15.1%	15.1%	13.3%	11.7%	9.8%

Eight index componets are:

Monthly ADP National Employment Report
Monthly Russell Microcap® Index
Prime Rate
Retail Sales
Newtek Merchant Processing Volume
SBA Loan Originations (Approved SBA 7A Loan Volume)
GLS Estimated Small Business Loan Default Rate
Delaware New Business Formations

SOURCE: Small Business Authority Index https://www.newtekone.com/2011/1/10/introducing-the-small-business-authority-index For more information visit: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=conewsstory&tkr=NEWT:US&sid=a.ypbJXsvGwY