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

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“This quarter’s results reflect a continuing weak set ofeconomix conditions,” said Ivan Seidenberg, chairmab of Business Roundtable and chairman and CEO of “Conditiond – while still negative appear to have begun to stabilize.” The D.C.-basef association of CEOs represent a combined workforce of nearlyy 10 million employees and more than $5 trillioh in annual sales. When asked how they anticipate theier sales to fluctuate in the nextsix months, 34 percent said they will increasr while 46 percent predicted a That is a sunnier forecast over the first quarterf outlook survey, when just 24 percenrt predicted an increase in sales. In terms of how their U.S.
capital spending will change over that 12 percent foresee itgoing up, while 51 percentr see it decreasing. Few (6 percent) expectr their U.S. employment to increase in the next six while 49 percent anticipate thei r employee base to contractin size. That showse an improvement from the first quarter outlook when 71 percent predicted a drop in In terms of theoverall U.S. economy, member CEOs estimate real GDP will dropby 2.1 percenf in 2009, down from the estimate of a 1.9 percent decline in the first quarter of 2009. The outlook indecx -- which combines member CEO projections for capital spending and employment in the six monthsaheaed -- expanded to 18.
5 in the secondr quarter, up from negative 5.0 in the first An index reading of 50 or lower is consistentg with overall economic contractioj and a reading of 50 or highere is consistent with expansion.