Small and midsize business (SMB) CEO confidence dropped to 84.3 in the first quarter of 2022, according to the latest CEO Confidence Index from Vistage, a CEO coaching and peer advisory organization.

Vistage's quarterly CEO Confidence Index, which measures SMB leaders' sentiment on various economic and business factors each quarter, saw a 13.6% decline from Q4 2021 to Q1 2022, accompanied by growing concern about the impacts of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on the U.S. economy. 14% of respondents do not expect Russia's invasion of Ukraine will have an impact on their business, while nearly half (45%) anticipate a direct impact.

"We have not seen CEO confidence dip this low since the beginning of the novel Coronavirus pandemic in 2020," said Joe Galvin, Vistage's chief research officer. "This sharp reduction in optimism is the direct result of prolonged uncertainty in the form of inflation, hiring challenges and supply chain/shipping difficulties, which has been further intensified by the potential domestic economic impact of the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. While 41% of small business CEOs said they were uncertain how the invasion will impact their business, we have already started to feel impacts on the U.S. economy through heightened energy costs."