Global uncertainty edges state's business confidence downward
After peaking in March, confidence among Massachusetts business leaders slipped for the fourth straight month in June, according to the Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM).
AIM’s Business Confidence Index lost a point last month, falling from 57.3 in May to 56.3. (A reading above 50 on the 1-to-100 scale represents more confidence.). The index reached 60.2 in March, a 10-year high.
As 2015 so far has shown, confidence and the economy do not always move in lockstep, Raymond G. Torto, chairman of AIM’s Board of Economic Advisors (BEA) and a lecturer at Harvard University, said in a statement Tuesday. “The first quarter of 2015 was a very weak one for the economy, but a strong one for the AIM Index, which gained each month; whereas the second quarter, though much better in terms of economic growth, has seen three monthly losses,” he said.
In this instance, Torto noted, the index’s decline appears to be driven by surveyed employers’ concerns about global conditions.
AIM’s Massachusetts and U.S. sub-indexes showed gains from May to June, he noted. But “events overseas, in China and in Greece and the Eurozone, are casting shadows on relatively good conditions at home,” Torto said.
Yet the index is up 2.6 points compared with June 2014, and ahead of June 2013 by 7.6 points. “So we are not reading too much into the quarterly trend,” Torto said.
“These are still positive numbers, revealing wariness rather than fear about the second half of 2015,” added BEA member Michael A. Tyler, chief investment officer of Eastern Bank Wealth Management.
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments