Chief executive views on U.S. economy firm in first quarter

WASHINGTON – Business leaders in the U.S. adopted a more optimistic outlook in the first quarter as sales projections for the next six months reached a three-year high and capital-spending plans also advanced.

The Business Roundtable’s composite CEO economic outlook index, which measures corporate leaders’ forward-looking assessments of sales, investment and employment, rose to 90.8 from 85.1 in the last three months of 2014, the group said Tuesday in Washington.

A strengthening labor market and persistently low fuel costs have given the American consumer greater purchasing power to help drive demand. Executives in the survey projected the U.S. economy will expand 2.8 percent in 2015, up from last quarter’s 2.4 percent forecast.

“You have a lot of things that are working in the consumer’s favor right now,” including wage growth and low energy prices, Randall L. Stephenson, chairman of Business Roundtable and CEO of AT&T Inc., told reporters on a conference call. “We saw in January the first really positive sign of wage growth.”

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The survey, completed between Jan. 26 and Feb. 13, included responses from 120 CEO members of the trade group, which represents a workforce of almost 16 million and annual revenue of $7.2 trillion.

Figures greater than 50 for the group’s index indicate economic expansion, and the gauge’s long-term average is 80.5.

Eighty percent of respondents said they expect receipts to grow in the next half year, compared with 74 percent the prior period, the group said. A greater share of executives, 45 percent, also said they plan to increase capital spending in the next six months, up from 36 percent in the fourth quarter.

Hiring plans were little changed, with 40 percent of executives responding that they planned to increase headcounts over the next six months.

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