“After six months of rising optimism, small business owners came back to earth in March, expressing concerns with inflation and rising prices in the National Federation of Independent Business’ latest Small Business Optimism Index survey.
The index fell nearly two points in March from February, when it was at its highest point in the past 12 months.
Even as the stock market continued to rise and unemployment![[cnbc explains]](http://ibankcoin.com/news/wp-content/imagescaler/b095857bc35684a1ecf9bbc7c44ce936.gif){kind=small}
continued to decline in March, business owners were not cheered by the numbers.
“One could have hoped it could keep going up,” William Dunkelberg, NFIB’s chief economist, told CNBC.com. Business owners remained subdued, he said, because “nothing has happened to make people feel good about the future.”
Nine of the 10 components in the index went down in March; business owners expressed pessimism in the areas of job creation, expectation of higher sales, easing of credit conditions, and earnings. The only area in which optimism increased was with inventories, which are low. As consumer confidenceremains unsteady, businesses are keeping inventories in check.
Dunkelberg said that the March report mirrors the one from March 2011, “and not in a good way.”
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