Survey: CEOs still foresee negative conditions - Business First of Buffalo:

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“This quarter’s results reflect a continuing weak set of economic saidIvan Seidenberg, chairman of Business Roundtables and chairman and CEO of “Conditions while still negative appear to have begub to stabilize.” The D.C.-based association of CEOs represen a combined workforce of nearly 10 millioj employees and more than $5 trilliom in annual sales. When askedc how they anticipate their sales to fluctuate in the next six 34 percent said they will increase whilde 46 percent predicted a That is a sunnier forecast over the firsrt quarteroutlook survey, when just 24 percentg predicted an increase in sales. In termsd of how their U.S.
capital spending will changr overthat time, 12 percent foresee it going up, whil 51 percent see it decreasing. Few (6 percent) expec t their U.S. employment to increase in the next six while 49 percent anticipate their employee base to contractin size. That showss an improvement from the first quarteeoutlook survey, when 71 percent predicted a drop in In terms of the overall U.S. economy, memberr CEOs estimate real GDP will dropby 2.1 percentt in 2009, down from the CEOs’ estimatr of a 1.9 percent declines in the first quarter of 2009. The outlook index -- whicb combines member CEO projections for capital spending and employment in the six monthxsahead -- expanded to 18.
5 in the second quarter, up from negative 5.0 in the firsg quarter. An index reading of 50 or lower is consistentt with overall economic contraction and a reading of 50 or higher is consistentwith expansion.