Corporate finance chiefs lift inflation outlook, cite rates as concern - Fed survey

Overall optimism about the economy among financial officers remained strong, but financing concerns have begun to dim the outlook among smaller businesses, said Sonya Waddell, a vice president and economist at the Richmond Fed, which conducts the CFO survey along with the Atlanta Fed and Duke University's Fuqua School of Business.

"Where there are challenges they are most pronounced for small and financially constrained firms," Waddell said in a press release accompanying the latest survey. About a fifth of small firms said financing constraints were holding back expansion plans or making it hard to cover costs, and firms overall anticipate less capital investment in the next six months compared with the outlook six months ago.

While Fed officials say they do not feel current financial conditions are restrictive, among those not planning to invest about 42% cited unfavorable financing or a need to preserve cash as the reason, up from 32% six months ago.