Reuters) – U.S. small businesses boosted borrowing in October to its highest level in over six years, an index showed on Tuesday, fresh evidence that the budget battle that shut the federal government for 16 days did little to derail underlying economic growth.

The Thomson Reuters/PayNet Small Business Lending Index, which measures the volume of financing to small companies, rose to 120.4 in October, PayNet said on Tuesday. That was the highest level since August 2007, just as the devastating U.S. financial crisis was gaining steam.  Read more