Small businesses have continued to outstrip the economy as a whole, says the National Bank.
In the year to the end of December, small to medium sized business grew by 4.7 per cent, compared with 3.5 per cent for the overall economy.
Construction was particularly healthy, but most other types of small
businesses continued growing in the last three months of last year, with the exception of retailing.
But the signs are not so positive for the way ahead.
Asked last month if they expected the economy to grow or shrink, pessimists outweighed optimists by 31 per cent.
That was a marked fall from December last year, when a net 6.5 per cent of businesses were negative.
But small firms were more optimistic about their own prospects.
A net 19 per cent expected things to improve over the year ahead, though that was also down on December, when a net 28 per cent were optimistic.
The bank's quarterly survey also asks businesses what their biggest problems are.
Usually, the most popular answer is "regulation", but in the latest survey the emphasis switched; the biggest problem now is finding skilled employees, which 22 per cent of those surveyed rated as their number-one issue.
Regulation was still a big one, with 18 per cent of those surveyed rating it as their main concern.
The survey also shows that credit is getting tighter.
All sizes of businesses have found it harder to get credit over the past nine months or so, says the survey, and the smaller the firm, the more of a problem that is likely to be.
