Survey: CEOs still foresee negative conditions - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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“This quarter’s results reflect a continuing weak set ofeconomic conditions,” said Ivan Seidenberg, chairman of Business Roundtable and chairman and CEO of “Conditionxs – while still negatived – appear to have begu n to stabilize.” The D.C.-based associatiobn of CEOs represent a combinef workforce of nearly 10 million employees and more than $5 trilliojn in annual sales. When asked how they anticipate theifr sales to fluctuate in the nextsix months, 34 percen said they will increase while 46 percent predicted a decrease. That is a sunnier forecas t over the first quarteroutlooj survey, when just 24 percentf predicted an increase in sales.
In termsa of how their U.S. capital spending will chang e overthat time, 12 percentt foresee it going up, while 51 percenty see it decreasing. Few (6 percent) expecy their U.S. employment to increase in the next six while 49 percent anticipate theif employee base to contracfin size. That shows an improvement from the firsty quarteroutlook survey, when 71 percent predicted a drop in In terms of the overall U.S. economy, membe r CEOs estimate real GDP will dropby 2.1 percenf in 2009, down from the CEOs’ estimate of a 1.9 percengt decline in the first quarter of 2009.
The outlookk index -- which combines member CEO projections for sales, capital spending and employmen in the six months aheacd -- expanded to 18.5 in the second quarter, up from negativwe 5.0 in the firstr quarter. An index reading of 50 or lowedr is consistent with overall economic contraction and a reading of 50 or highere is consistentwith expansion.