Mass. business confidence slips further in October
For the third straight month, and the sixth month out of the last seven, business confidence in Massachusetts dipped slightly in October, Associated Industries of Massachusetts reported Tuesday morning.
AIM's monthly Business Confidence Index slipped three-tenths of a percentage point to 55.6 in October, though AIM officials said the decrease could have been worse given political uncertainty in Washington D.C.
"This was the index’s third consecutive monthly decline, but the big story here is what didn’t happen," Raymond Torto, chair of AIM's Board of Economic Advisors, said in a statement. "What didn’t happen is a sharp drop in business confidence due to political deadlock in Washington."
Torto noted that AIM's index score was based on responses delivered before the federal debt ceiling negotiations and the House speaker's election were resolved, Torto noted, and the index score fell 5.8 points during the October 2013 debt ceiling standoff.
That the AIM index has declined only moderately despite months of worry about a global economic slowdown and an impending interest rate hike is likely a sign that "business confidence continues to be stable and solid," Torto said.
The AIM index has been issued monthly since July 1991. It is presented on a 100-point scale, with a score of 50 being neutral. The all-time high of 68.5 was recorded in both 1997 and 1998, the group said.
The index score of 55.6 for October is about seven-tenths of a percentage point higher than the business confidence index score last October, AIM said.
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments