Newtek Business Services, The Small Business Authority, announced the release of the SB Authority Index for June 2012 reaching 112.32 points.  The SB Authority index is up .22% from May 2012. The increase was led by small increases in Newtek proprietary's merchant processing volume, retail sales and approved SBA gross lending volume.

President and CEO, Barry Sloane said, "The anemic pace of the small business economy is showing its ugly head in the form of minimal improvement in our index.  Yes, there is an uptrend but you will need a magnifying glass to locate it.  We are concerned that the primary drivers of growth: low interest rates, government stimulus and consumer spending are losing their inertia.  The GDP report from Friday is consistent with our findings."