Inflation is the biggest concern facing small business owners and less than half of them think their local economy will improve, WCPO reported.
To slow spending and reverse rising consumer prices, the Federal Reserve Board authorized the largest interest rate hike in more than two decades.
The nation is still dealing with the effects of stimulus funds pumped into the economy during the COVID-19 pandemic, said Michael Jones, the Kautz-Uible Professor of Economics in the University of Cincinnati's Carl H. Lindner College of Business.
"It was $2 trillion and if the supply chain can't respond to that increased money that's in the economy then that's going to cause prices to go up as well," Jones said.
Featured image: UC economics professor Michael Jones. Screenshot courtesy of WCPO video.