One dollar of small-business lending turned into $112 of economic life

The nonprofit lender Accion Opportunity Fund traced a decade of lending to nearly 20,000 small businesses in its new ‘Ripple Effect’ report: every $1 in taxpayer funding generated an estimated $112 in GDP — $5.46 billion in total — while supporting more than 70,000 jobs. The independent analysis, led by TXP, Inc. using the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis RIMS II model, found 71% of borrowers came from low-income households and 96% of businesses were still open two years after their loan.