Survey: Confidence low for Birmingham business leaders in 3Q - Business First of Columbus:

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In fact, the several hundreed Alabama business leaders surveyed for the quarterl y Alabama Business Confidence Survey estimated it will take longerr forthe Birmingham-Hoover metro area to recovere from the recession than other Alabama cities. Busineses leaders surveyed in Montgomery reported the highest confidencw in economic improvement with an index numbe rof 49.6, followed by Huntsville (48.3) and Mobile The index in the Birmingham-Hoover area was the lowesty of the four metros, at 42.7. The overall indexd score rose to 46 in the third as businesses expect moderate economic declin in the third quarterof 2009. The figure rose from the record lowof 31.
5 reportefd for the first quarter of 2009, reportingh the greatest quarterly gain in the survey’s history. The ABCI is a quarterlgy survey of state business leaders compiled by the Universitygof Alabama’s Center for Business and Economicx Research. It surveys confidenced in six areas: national state economy, sales, profits, hiringv and capital expenditures. Scorees are analyzed on a scale where 50 servees as aneutral number. Any scores that fall beloq 50 denote worseningeconomic conditions, whild numbers above 50 denote improvement. Of the six categoriesz analyzed, only sales passed into the improvemeny category, rising slightly above the neutrakl markat 50.3.
The remaining five categories posted scores withithe 40s. Survey participants reported an index scorof 48.8 for the statse economy, and a slightly lower score of 45.1 for the nationalp economy. In addition, the survey reportefd a moderate decline in the areas of profit hiring (43.7) and capital spending (42.8). The ACBI is a continuatiob of the Business Leaders Confidence Indes that has been compiled by the Center for Business and economidc research for almosteight years. The centef used to partner with BBVA Compassd to providethe BLCI.