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CEO Group Forecasts Faster Growth For Michigan Than U.S. As A Whole

DETROIT -- Business Leaders for Michigan, the statewide successor CEO organization to Detroit Renaissance, issued another report Tuesday forecasting that Michigan's economy will grow faster than the United States economy as a whole over the next six to 18 months.

The forecast is reinforced by 60 percent of BLM members planning to increase hiring in Michigan in the next six months. Nearly two thirds say they added jobs in Michigan last year.  

Highlights of the survey of Business Leaders for Michigan include:
* More business leaders (55 percent) believe Michigan's economy will grow over the next six months and none believe it will get worse. Yet when it comes to the national economy, 68 percent of business leaders forecast the American economy will be about same over the next six months, and only 17 percent forecast that it will grow.
* More Michigan business leaders (82 percent) believe the state's economy will grow over the next 18 months, and none believe it will shrink. Yet only 57 percent of business leaders forecast the American economy will grow in the next 18 months and 15 percent think it will contract.
* 66 percent of business leaders added jobs in 2012 and 60 percent believe their companies will add jobs in 2013.

"The avoidance of the fiscal cliff and slow, but steady domestic growth has boosted the overall economic outlook of Michigan's largest job providers," said Doug Rothwell, president and CEO of BLM. "But they remain far more optimistic about Michigan vs. the nation's economy by the largest margins we have seen since we started conducting these surveys in 2009."

Rothwell said the optimism about the state "is based on progress made stabilizing the state's finances, addressing long-term debt and structural budget deficits and improving the costs of doing business here. These are the same issues they feel are not being addressed in Washington and are holding the national economy back from full recovery."

The results reflect a survey of Business Leaders for Michigan's 80 executives, CEOs who represent nearly one-quarter of the state's economy, including more than 320,000 jobs and $1 trillion in annual revenue. BLM also includes the presidents of the state's three major research universities.

BLM economic reports are available at www.businessleadersformichigan.com/research-and-reports.

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