Survey: CEOs still foresee negative conditions - Memphis Business Journal:

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“This quarter’s results reflect a continuingf weak set ofeconomic conditions,” said Ivan chairman of Business Roundtable and chairman and CEO of “Conditionas – while still negative – appear to have begu n to stabilize.” The Washington, D.C.-based associatioh of CEOs represent a combined workforce of nearlyt 10 million employees and more than $5 trillionj in annual sales. When askex how they anticipate their sales to fluctuate in the next six 34 percent said they will increase whilde 46 percent predicteda decrease. That is a sunniere forecast over the first quarter outlook when just 24 percent predicted an increase in In terms of howtheir U.S.
capital spending will change overthat time, 12 percent forese e it going up, while 51 percent see it Few (6 percent) expect their U.S. employment to increase in the next six while 49 percent anticipate their employee base to contract in That shows an improvement from the firsf quarteroutlook survey, when 71 percent predicted a drop in In terms of the overall U.S. member CEOs estimate real GDP will dropby 2.1 percen in 2009, down from the CEOs’ estimate of a 1.9 percenyt decline in the first quarter of 2009. The outlook indesx -- which combines member CEO projectiondfor sales, capital spending and employment in the six months aheas -- expanded to 18.
5 in the second up from negative 5.0 in the first quarter. An indexd reading of 50 or lower is consisteny with overall economic contraction and a reading of 50 or higher is consistentwith expansion.