WASHINGTON (MNI) – The following is a text from the fourth quarter
Business Roundtable CEO survey. The Business Roundtable is an
association made up of CEO’s at large US companies with nearly 16
million employees:

The results of Business Roundtable’s (BRT) fourth quarter 2012 CEO
Economic Outlook Survey show CEOs’expectations are largely unchanged,
with a slight decline in expectations for sales and capital spending and
a slight rise in expectations for hiring. This follows a significant
drop in expectations in the third quarter of 2012.

“CEOs anticipate continued slow overall economic growth for the
next six months and haves lightly lower expectations for sales
and capital expenditures,” said Jim McNerney, Chairman of Business
Roundtable and Chairman, President and CEO of The Boeing Company. “The
continued softness in quarterly sentiment reflects deep uncertainty
about the future overall economic climate, realities of a slow-growing
economy and frustration over Washington’s inability to resolve looming
‘fiscal cliff’ issues.”

In addition to fiscal policy issues, 35 percent of the CEOs
reported that regulatory costs were of highest concern in the next six
months, followed by labor and health care costs. This contrasts with the
fourth quarter of 2011, when material costs were the CEOs’top concern.
The CEO survey is now in its 11th year.

BRT CEOs expect 2.0 percent growth for 2013, an increase from last
quarter’s estimate of 1.9 percent. CEO expectations for hiring over the
next six months are roughly neutral, which represents a slight
improvement from the expected decrease reported last quarter.

Fourth Quarter 2012 CEO Economic Outlook Survey Index

The Business Roundtable CEO Economic Outlook Survey Index – a
composite index of CEO expectations for the next six months of sales,
capital spending and employment – remained essentially unchanged
65.6in the fourth quarter of 2012from66.0 in the there in after.While the
Index remains above 50.0 – signaling continuing economic expansion – it
is at its lowest level since the third quarter of 2009 and is well below
its long-term average level of 79.4.

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

The survey was completed between November 12 and 30, 2012.Responses
were received from 143member CEOs, 67 percent of the total BRT
membership. 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.

** MNI Washington Bureau: 202-371-2121 **

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