Thursday, September 27, 2012

CEOs now see gloomy third quarter, drop growth expectations

Four major business groups see gloomy times ahead for the job market and the economy, according to a string of separate surveys and polls released this week that cast fresh doubt on hopes that the economic recovery may have turned the corner.
Top executives and small-business owners polled by the Business Roundtable, the National Association of Manufacturers, the National Federation of Independent Business, and chief financial officers surveyed by the management firm Deloitte pointed to uncertainty posed by new regulations, shaky demand overseas and the “fiscal cliff” facing the federal government as prime reasons keeping companies from investing and hiring at a faster pace.
The Business Roundtable, an association of CEOs from some of the nation’s top companies, on Wednesday dropped its growth expectations for the third quarter to the lowest level since the middle of the Great Recession. The trade group lowered projections for sales, capital spending and hiring in its latest CEO Economic Outlook Survey to their lowest levels since 2009.
The report was released on the same day as the chief financial officer survey from Deloitte, which found that CFOs also are increasingly pessimistic about the futures of their companies.

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