Things are looking up for corporate America, according to a survey of Business Roundtable members.
More of these big business CEOs expect sales, capital expenditures and hiring to increase in the next six months. Business Roundtable's CEO economic outlook index rose to 84.5 this quarter, up from 79.1 during the previous quarter.
The survey found that 73 percent of CEOs expect sales to increase over the next six months, an increase of 2 percentage points from last quarter. But only 34 percent expect to hire more workers, also up 2 percentage points from last quarter. The biggest gain came in capital expenditures -- 39 percent expect to increase spending on new facilities and equipment, compared with only 27 percent last quarter.
That's 'a good number,' said Business Roundtable Chairman Jim McNerney, who also is chairman, president and CEO of Boeing.
Capital spending is 'a little bit of a leading indicator' that tends to occur before companies hire more workers or see increased sales, he said.
That means CEOs are slightly more optimistic about their business prospects, but the economy 'continues to grow more slowly than we all would like,' McNerney said.
To get beyond the 2.2 percent GDP growth these CEOs project for next year, corporate America needs a little help from Washington, D.C. That could come from the budget negotiations under way between Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. Corporate CEOs aren't expecting these two Budget Committee chairs to come up with a grand bargain that solves the federal government's long-term debt crisis -- they'd settle for a basic framework that replaces some of sequestration's across-the-board spending cuts and makes some modest reforms to entitlement programs.
Posted by Unknown on Wednesday, December 4, 2013 - Rating: 4.5
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