Download Colorado business confidence holds steady heading into second quarter of

Colorado business confidence holds steady heading into second quarter of
2016, says CU-Boulder index
March 31, 2016
Richard Wobbekind
Colorado business leaders are still optimistic entering the second quarter of
2016, but that optimism is projected to slightly dip ahead of the third quarter
of the year, according to a CU-Boulder report.
Released today, the Leeds Business Confidence Index shows the same level of
optimism now as was recorded at the start of the first quarter with an overall
reading of 55.4. Meanwhile, a decrease in confidence is expected ahead of the
third quarter of 2016, says economist Richard Wobbekind (WAH-be-kin).
CUT 1 “I think the number one reason is they’re looking at the national economy
and the GDP performance and they’re just hearing a lot of feedback from the
national economy not being quite as strong. The forth quarter GDP was 1.4 percent.
And then in addition to that we have these global concerns that have been out there.
(:18) The politics – the political situation and particularly the elections are causing a
lot of concern amongst the people responding to the survey. ” (:27)
Wobbekind says the concern about the presidential elections is very high on the
minds of Colorado’s business leaders.
CUT 2 “They talk about specific candidates names in those surveys and perhaps that
they are not happy with the positions they’re taking or the direction they’re going so
they really feel pretty strongly about the election situation in terms of what’s
coming up in the not-too-distant-future.” (:18)
Number 2 on that list of concerns, says Wobbekind, is low oil and gas prices.
CUT 3 “The business community, I believe, at large is realizing that low commodity
and energy prices are dampening the growth of the economy. So they are seeing
that. They are seeing the negativity, if you will, in terms of growth of those low
energy prices and maybe not seeing as much of the positive impacts that others had
been saying would come – higher consumer spending an so on. (:23) In fact we don’t
see high spending. So even with these low energy prices we don’t see the consumers
really being very active in the market place.” (:31)
But even with these concerns Wobbekind says business leaders are still upbeat
about Colorado’s economy.
CUT 4 “Absolutely. It’s still in expansionary territory and, in fact, if you look at the
sub-components of the index – particularly sales and profits - they still are very
strong numbers. Well above 50. (:12) And even capital expenditures and hiring are
in the expansion category – a little bit slower than they were but still in the
expansion category.” (:17)
For more on the Leeds Business Confidence Index visit the Leeds School’s
Business Research Division page.
-CU-