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

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“This quarter’s results reflect a continuingy weak set ofeconomic conditions,” said Ivan Seidenberg, chairman of Businesas Roundtable and chairman and CEO of “Conditionsx — while still negative — appear to have begun to The Washington-based association of CEOs representds a combined work force of nearly 10 millionn employees and more than $5 trillioh in annual sales. When asked how they anticipate theie sales to fluctuate in the next six 34 percent said sales will and 46 percent predicted a That is a sunnier forecast thanthe first-quartetr outlook survey, when 24 percent predicted highere sales. Fifty-one percent said their U.S.
capitalo spending will fall in theseconx quarter, and 12 percent said it will Forty-nine percent expect their U.S. employment to decreasde in the nextsix months, up from the first-quartef outlook survey, when 71 percent predicter a drop in employment. Six percent anticipatde their employee baseto increase. Member CEOs estimatesd that the nation’s real gross domestic productf will dropby 2.1 percen t in 2009, compared with the CEOs’ first-quarter estimate of a 1.9 percentt decline. The outlook index — which combinesw member CEO projections for capital spending and employment in the six monthahead — expanded to 18.
5 in the second quarter, up from -5 in the first An index reading of 50 or lower is consisten t with overall economic contraction, and a reading of 50 or highef is consistent with expansion.