Survey: European Execs Foresee Boom Times Ahead

Business executives around Europe are joining economists in predicting better times ahead. Only 7% of the 1,500 executives in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Spain responding to the ninth annual UPS Europe Business Monitor survey expect their companies' economic position to worsen during the next 12 months. Fully 93% expect the economic outlook to be the same or better. Looking ahead for three years, the executives expect Spain to post the greatest growth rate, followed by Germany, France, Italy, Portugal, and the UK. British executives apparently are not dismayed by others' relatively low economic expectations for the UK; 48% of British executives believe their economy will be one of Europe's fastest-growing during the early years of the next century.