CEO Confidence in Economy Weakens

Confidence among chief executives in the U.S. economy slipped for the second straight quarter, private research firm the Conference Board said Wednesday.

Recent economic data and surveys have offered a mixed picture of consumer and business sentiment, as well as expectations for growth, making the economy a key debating point in the last weeks of the U.S. presidential election campaign.

“CEO confidence has slipped considerably over the past two quarters, as both current conditions and expectations have softened,” said Lynn Franco, director of the group’s consumer research center. The quarterly measure covers nearly 100 CEOs in a variety of industries.

Although the overall assessment by CEOs of current conditions remains positive, their level of confidence weakened to a rating of 63 in the third quarter from 70 in the second quarter, the Conference Board said.

About two-thirds of CEOs say current economic conditions have improved, down from 90% last quarter. When looking at their own industries, only 57% said conditions were better compared with 71% last quarter, the survey found.

Short-term outlooks were more tempered, with 55% of top executives expecting conditions to improve in the next six months, down from 64% last quarter.

But Franco said nearly a third of the CEOs reported an increase in capital spending plans since January, with only 6% scaling back. That marks an improvement from last year when only 12% of business leaders had increased capital spending plans at this point, the survey found.