Small firms' business sentiment for the April-June period deteriorated more than in the previous three months, with retail businesses remaining the most sluggish, according to a national survey released July 10.
The pessimism continues into the next period -- July through September -- as about 30 percent of the respondents foresee poor business conditions, the National Association of Shinkin Banks said. Shinkin banks are credit associations.
The diffusion index -- the figure obtained by subtracting the percentage of companies that see their business environment deteriorating from the percentage of those who see business conditions improving -- for the April-June period was -21.1, down 2.1 of percentage points from the previous period. All industries except manufacturing experienced a deteriorating or unchanged business condition during the period. Retail remained the worst as clothing and food service were especially stagnant, the survey said.