Washington – The CEOs of America’s largest companies anticipate higher sales and plan to increase capital expenditures and hire more workers over the next six months, according to the results of Business Roundtable’s second quarter 2011 CEO Economic Outlook Survey.  

“Fully 87% of our CEOs anticipate higher sales,” said Ivan G. Seidenberg, Chairman of Business Roundtable and Chairman and CEO of Verizon Communications. “As a result, more than half of our CEOs plan to increase both capital spending and U.S. hiring.  This continues a positive trend for our companies’ activity heading into the second half of 2011.”

Survey Results

The survey’s key findings from this quarter and the first quarter of 2011 include: 

In terms of the overall U.S. economy, member CEOs estimate real GDP will grow by 2.8 percent in 2011, a slight decrease from the 2.9 percent projected in the first quarter of 2011.

Second Quarter 2011 CEO Economic Outlook Survey Index

The Business Roundtable CEO Economic Outlook Survey Index decreased slightly to 109.9 in the second quarter of 2011, from 113 in the first quarter of 2011. 

Business Roundtable’s CEO Economic Outlook Survey, conducted quarterly since the fourth quarter of 2002, provides a forward-looking view of the economy by Business Roundtable member CEOs.

The survey was completed between May 16 and June 3 and responses were received from 135 member CEOs. The percentages in some categories may not equal 100 due to rounding. Results of this and all previous surveys can be found at http://www.brt.org/ceo_survey.