Leaders of the largest U.S. companies are growing more confident that economic growth will accelerate in 2004, yet less than half have plans to speed up hiring.
The survey, released on Wednesday, of about 70 chief executive officers by the Business Council suggests that companies remain in some respects reluctant to spend, more than two years after the U.S. economy climbed out of recession.
Seventy-six percent of CEOs polled expect gross domestic product in 2004 to rise between 3.6 percent and 4.5 percent, versus 3.1 percent in 2003. Just 55 percent of those polled in October expected a 2004 increase exceeding 3 percent.
Source: Reuters