Any lingering doubts about Connecticut Inc.’s growing credit appetite may be doused by fresh data showing the dollar volume of federally backed loans to small businesses jumped 22 percent in fiscal 2013, authorities say.
The U. S. Small Business Administration’s Connecticut District Office disclosed Thursday that Connecticut ranked second in New England Region 1, in both total number of loans, and total dollars for $226 million. The dollar volume was 22 percent greater than in fiscal 2012, SBA officials said.
Massachusetts led with $356 million
“These numbers reflect the confidence that the state’s entrepreneurs have in the improving economy as well as in the SBA lending programs that back their loans,” SBA New England Regional Administrator Seth A. Goodall said in a statement.
Nationwide, SBA loan programs also increased their lending, backing $30.25 billion in loans to small businesses in fiscal 2013, the agency said. That amount was surpassed only by FY 2011, which was heavily boosted by the loan incentives under the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010.
