Latest news with #BusinessCouncil
Axios
2 days ago
- Business
- Axios
CEO confidence plunges at fastest rate in nearly 50 years
U.S. CEO confidence recorded the largest quarterly decline in nearly 50 years of data, per a Conference Board report out Thursday. Why it matters: CEOs seem to be losing their nerve just as consumers are starting to get more optimistic, amid the constant uncertainty of President Trump's trade war. By the numbers: The Conference Board's Measure of CEO Confidence, compiled with membership group the Business Council, fell to 34 in the second quarter, versus 60 in the first quarter. The Conference Board said it was the largest quarter-over-quarter decline ever recorded, in a series that goes back to 1976. The same indicator hit a three-year high in the first quarter, while the trade war was in its early stages but before the "Liberation Day" tariffs. The group surveyed 133 CEOs from May 5 to May 19 — just before and just after the pause on the largest China tariffs. What they're saying: " All components of the Measure weakened into pessimism territory," Conference Board senior economist Stephanie Guichard said in a statement. Guichard also acknowledged the impact of the China deal — which softened, but did not remove, CEOs' concerns. "CEOs responding before and after May 12 reported similar very negative views about the current state of the economy and their own industries. However, the CEOs who responded after May 12 tended to be somewhat less pessimistic about the future and fewer expected a deep recession." Between the lines: The Conference Board used the word "collapsed" multiple times to describe the dramatic fall in sentiment. 82% of CEOs said economic conditions were worse than six months ago, versus just 11% who felt that way in the first quarter. 64% expect things to worsen further in the next six months, against 15% who felt that way previously.
Khaleej Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Khaleej Times
UAE, Lebanon to allow citizens to travel after setting up necessary measures
UAE and Lebanon agreed to allow citizens to travel after taking the necessary measures to facilitate movement between the two countries and establishing appropriate mechanisms. This comes as part of a joint statement issued by the two countries on the occasion of the working visit of Joseph Aoun, President of the Lebanese Republic, to the UAE. Aoun and UAE's President Sheikh Mohamed held talks at Al Shati Palace in Abu Dhabi, and discussed ways to develop investment opportunities, exchange expertise, and develop areas of government work. Earlier this year, UAE reopened its embassy in Beirut, and resumed diplomatic activities, which a UAE official termed a significant step in advancing cooperation between the two countries. The two countries will also establish a joint Emirati-Lebanese Business Council, under a new agreement during the discussions. The Abu Dhabi Fund for Development will send a delegation to Lebanon to discuss and evaluate available joint cooperation projects; the Knowledge Exchange Office at the Ministry of Cabinet Affairs will visit Beirut to inform Lebanon of UAE's successful experiences in developing government performance. The UAE President stressed support for Lebanon's stability and sovereignty, and hope that the Lebanese President's visit would help in achieving common aspirations for progress.
Zawya
23-05-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Nigeria: Gov Mbah inaugurates Enugu ease of doing business council
Governor of Enugu State, Dr. Peter Mbah, on Thursday, inaugurated the Enugu State Ease-of-Doing-Business Council, saying it was in tandem with his electoral promise to grow the state into a $30bn economy from $4.4bn by repositioning it as the premier destination for business, investment, tourism and living. Inaugurating the 25-man Council at the Government House, Enugu, Mbah, who is also the Chairman of the Council, stressed that investors were not Father Christmas and would naturally tilt to where there is a conducive environment and higher return on investment, RoI. 'Recall that one of the first activities that I performed after my swearing was to sign Executive Order 005, which speaks to Ease of Doing Business. It largely tells us that we cannot achieve the ambitious economic growth plan that we have given ourselves if we do not attract private investments. 'Therefore, for us as a state government, this Ease-of-Doing-Business Council is consistent with our objectives to ensure that we create an environment for businesses to thrive. 'If you look at all the key indicators of Ease of Doing Business, you would notice that we have aggressively intervened across those various indicators,' he stated. Among others, he listed ease of access to land through the establishment of the Enugu State Geographic Information Systems (ENGIS), and establishment of a one-stop shop for processing of permits, the investments in ultramodern security infrastructure, building of transport infrastructure, digital infrastructure, and skilled manpower as some of the strategic steps taken to ease up the business in Enugu State. 'So, as the chairman of the council, we will all work hard to ensure that we come close as a state to become a frontier of the Ease of Doing Business,' he concluded. Speaking to newsmen, the 2nd Deputy President of the Enugu Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, Dr. Eric Chime, who represented the president and the body, described the council as another great leap for Enugu State under Governor Mbah's leadership. 'The Chairman, who is the Governor, has stated all he has done to make Enugu State attract investment. What we are going to do is to be the wagon that will carry this message and let investors come. Enugu is the safest place to invest. 'Any investor that you want to tell to come, they will ask you about security first. If you are talking about security, the governor has taken care of it. If you talk about technology, the governor has taken care of it; infrastructure, the governor has taken care of it. So, our job is to take the good message and attract investors to the state because Enugu is a safe haven,' he enthused. Also, fielding questions from Government House correspondents, the President of the Nsukka Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, Barr. Sam Otobueze, commended Mbah for efforts to align Enugu State with global standards to attract businesses. 'This is a very wonderful initiative. The world economy is changing, and the best way to get into it and be recognised is what we are doing because the more we attract businesses and investments into the state, the better for us. The more we get to the world map as one of those states, you can go and invest in business, the better for us,' he stated. Copyright © 2022 Nigerian Tribune Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (
CTV News
22-05-2025
- Business
- CTV News
‘We need to reset the table': Business council calls for stability following G7 Summit
Business Council of Alberta President, Adam Legge, discusses the upcoming G7 Summit and more with Alberta Primetime host Michael Higgins.
The Age
18-05-2025
- Business
- The Age
Want greater productivity? Set wages to rise by 3.5 per cent a year
Remember this next time you see the (Big) Business Council issuing yet another report urging the government to do something to improve productivity. What businesspeople say about productivity is usually thinly disguised rent-seeking. 'You want higher productivity? Simple – give me a tax cut. You want to increase business investment in capital equipment? Simple – introduce a new investment incentive. And remember, if only you'd give us greater freedom in the way we may treat our workers, the economy would be much better.' Why do even economists go along with the idea that poor productivity must be the government's fault? Because of a bias built into the way economists are taught to think about the economy. Their 'neoclassical model' assumes that all consumers and all businesspeople react rationally to the incentives (prices) they face. So if the private sector isn't working well, the only possible explanation is that the government has given them the wrong incentives and should fix them. Third, businesspeople, politicians and even economists often imply that any improvement in the productivity of labour (output per hour worked) is automatically passed on to workers as higher real wages by the economy's 'invisible hand'. Don't believe it. The Productivity Commission seems to support this by finding that, over the long term, improvement in labour productivity and the rise in real wages are pretty much equal. Loading Trouble is, as they keep telling you at uni, 'correlation doesn't imply causation'. As Nobel Prize-winning economist Daron Acemoglu argues in his book Power and Progress, workers get their share of the benefits of technological advance only if governments make sure they do. Fourth, economics 101 teaches that the main way firms increase the productivity of their workers is by giving them more and better machines to work with. This is called 'capital deepening', in contrast to the 'capital widening' that must be done just to ensure the amount of machinery per worker doesn't fall as high immigration increases the workforce. It's remarkable how few sermonising economists think to make the obvious point that the weak rate of business investment in plant and equipment over the past decade or more makes the absence of improvement in the productivity of labour utterly unsurprising. Fifth, remember Sims' Law. As Rod Sims, former boss of the competition commission, often reminded us, improving productivity is just one of the ways businesses may seek to increase their profits. It seems clear that improving productivity has not been a popular way for the Business Council's members to improve profits in recent times. My guess is that they've been more inclined to do it by using loopholes in our industrial relations law to keep the cost of labour low: casualisation, use of labour hire companies and non-compete clauses in employment contracts, for instance. Sixth, few economists make the obvious neoclassical point that the less the rise in the real cost of labour, the less the incentive for businesses to invest in labour-saving equipment. So here's my proposal for encouraging greater labour productivity. Rather than continuing to tell workers their real wages can't rise until we get some more productivity, we should try reversing the process. We should make the cost of labour grow in real terms – which would do wonders for consumer spending and economic growth – and see if this encourages firms to step up their investment in labour-saving technology, thereby improving productivity of workers. Federal and state governments should seek to establish a wage 'norm' whereby everyone's wages rose by 3.5 per cent a year – come rain or shine. That would be 2.5 percentage points for inflation, plus 1 percentage point for productivity improvement yet to be induced. Think of how much less time that workers and bosses would spend arguing about pay rises. Governments have no legal power to dictate the size of wage rises. But they could start to inculcate such a norm by increasing their own employees' wages by that percentage. The feds could urge the Fair Work Commission to raise all award wage minimums by that proportion at its annual review. If wages of the bottom quarter of workers kept rising by that percentage, it would become very hard for employers to increase higher wage rates by less. A frightening idea to some, maybe, but one that might really get our productivity improving.
