Business Confidence Takes Summer Dip
For the fourth consecutive summer, business confidence dropped in June, sliding below neutral, to 48.9, according to the Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM).
AIM said its business confidence index dropped 3.2 points, pushing the reading below the average of 50.2 on a 100-point scale it had for the first half of the year.
Raymond G. Torto, global chief economist at CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. and chair of AIM's Board of Economic Advisors (BEA) said the good news was that last June's decline was steeper, at 8.5 points.
"The bad news, so to speak, is that this year it is more difficult to identify a single reason for the slump," he said.
Most economists agree that the economy is improving, but Torto said there are reasons for uncertainty.
"The recent downward revision of growth estimates for the earlier part of 2013 align with our survey's finding that many Massachusetts employers experienced a slowdown in the first half – 32 percent of respondents reported sales declines, compared to 29 percent with gains," he said.
Torto added that weak conditions plaguing Europe, as well as political deadlock, continue to be concerns for employers.
"These, together with signals that the Federal Reserve may taper off its quantitative easing stimulus, cast a shadow over AIM's members and their outlook," he said.
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