More of Wisconsin's small businesses defaulted on existing loans and the level of borrowing activity grew in January 2018, data reported by PayNet show.

In spite of a 4 basis point climb from December, Wisconsin's PayNet Small Business Default Index (SBDFI) at 1.19% was third best nationally and was still 63 basis points under the national SBDFI level of 1.82%.  Over the last year, Wisconsin's SBDFI rose 5 basis points, whereas the national SBDFI dropped 2 basis points.

The industries with the highest default rates in Wisconsin were Transportation and Warehousing (2.98%); Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting (2.81%); and Accommodation and Food Services (2.17%). Nationally, Transportation and Warehousing had a default rate of 3.91%, with a difference of -0.40% compared to the prior year, while Wisconsin had a variance of -0.50%.

Wisconsin ranked 3rd nationally with a PayNet Small Business Lending Index (SBLI) of 126.1, which was 1.4% above the previous month's state level and 24.0% higher than this month's national SBLI level (101.7).

"Time will tell how these conditions will affect Wisconsin's economy going forward," asserts William Phelan, president of PayNet.