During the quarterly meeting of the Ball State University Business Forecasting Roundtable, the majority of local business executives admitted they were cautiously optimistic.

"Things are improving, but it's still a down year," said Ken Briner, vice president of Muncie Power Products, a supplier to the vocational heavy trucking industry. "We feel like we will make up some ground in the second half of the year."

Stronger exports are reviving sales, but sluggish domestic demand is evidence that many businesses are still concentrating on cost-cutting, not expansion, he said.

However, tentative signs of recovery in the stock market and the bottoming of interest rates are fueling the hope that real growth is just around the corner, several members said.

"We rank future economic prospects at a 7 on scale of 1 to 10," said Kathie Onieal, roundtable chair and vice president of investments and branch manager for A.G. Edwards and Sons. 

The majority of roundtable participants anticipate the local economy picking up in the last half of the year.

"The next few months will tell us whether or not those good feelings will start showing up on the bottom line," said Patrick Barkey, director of economic and policy studies.

For more information, contact Barkey at pbarkey@bsu.edu or (765) 285-5926.