Newtek Business Services,The Small Business Authority, announced the release of the SB Authority Index forJuly 2011reaching 107.26 points. The SB Authority Index is up .96% fromJune 2011. Approved SBA loan volumes, the Russell microcap index and Retail Sales caused the increase in the index. The other five components of the index are ADP national employment report, Newtek's proprietary merchant processing volume, estimated small business default loan rate, GLS default rate and the prime rate.

President and CEO,Barry Sloanesaid, "We have stated and been consistent since the beginning of the year that the small business economy has been extremely sluggish and struggles to grow. Our slight monthly increase for July is a further condition of the problems that small businesses ultimately have and will have going forward. We see slight availability of credit, flat job growth and tepid retail spending. In addition, the Federal Reserve keeping interest rates at zero percent is not good for small businesses since this is creating inflation and weakening the dollar."