Credit markets remain difficult for many distributors and manufacturers. In the latest MDM/Robert W. Baird & Co. quarterly survey, about 16 percent of respondents said their credit availability deteriorated since the start of 2010. Just 5 percent saw improvement in credit availability. That means 78 percent of respondents saw no change in the availability of credit from banks since the start of the year.
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Some respondents reported that they wanted to expand, but did not have the capital to do so. One participant in the survey said: "Companies are spending money again, but credit is still an issue."
In the latest National Federation of Independent Business Index of Small Business Optimism, which lost points in June, credit for small businesses was still tight. "Regular NFIB borrowers," or 29 percent accessing capital markets at least once a quarter, said they were seeing difficulties in arranging credit. A net 13 percent of borrowers reported loans were harder to get than in their last attempt. (See that monthly report from the NFIB here.)
