CEOs Optimistic About the Performance of the Economy

Despite a relatively uncertain economic cycle, the leaders of America’s top companies have shown a slight uptick in their expectations for the economy over the next six months, a new survey by Business Roundtable finds.

The outlook index of the 2007 CEO Economic Outlook Survey, which indicates how CEOs believe the economy will perform in the six months ahead, improved moderately, rising more than two points to 79.5 from last quarter’s 77.4.

In response to the annual question on cost pressures facing their businesses, a majority of CEOs cited energy and healthcare expenditures, equally, as their greatest fiscal pressures. 

“These latest results demonstrate tampered CEO confidence with a slight rebounding of expectations since last quarter.” --Harold McGraw III, Business Roundtable

Among other highlights, the survey’s key findings include:

•     70 percent of CEOs said they expect their companies’ sales to increase.
  
•     51 percent expect their companies’ U.S. capital spending to remain the same.
•     45 percent feel that employment at their companies will remain steady.
  

“This quarter’s survey suggests that CEOs, as a whole, still see the economy as steady and that the vast majority expect their sales, capital spending and employment levels to either increase or remain steady in the first half of 2008,” said Harold McGraw III, Business Roundtable chairman, and chairman and CEO of McGraw-Hill, in a statement. “These latest results demonstrate tampered CEO confidence with a slight rebounding of expectations since last quarter.”