Clearly, CEO confidence has been affected by the negative economic reports of late, including flat or reduced U.S. job growth, GDP and manufacturing output. Some economic forecasters are even starting to plan for the next recession.
As a result, in May, CEOs reported having less confidence in their expectations for overall business conditions a year from now than they did in April, and their confidence was the lowest it has been all year. CEO confidence is down 4.5 percent from January, to 6.41, from 6.71. In fact, the level of confidence has not been this low since October 2014, when CEOs’ outlook was 6.36 out of 10.