PricewaterhouseCoopers: Economic Optimism in Decline

A majority of companies (60 percent) are passing along at least some of their increased energy costs to customers. Despite these pass-through efforts, 53 percent of industrial manufacturers reported a negative impact on their profit margins over the past 12 months due to higher energy costs.

Economic uncertainty was evident in industrial manufacturers’ plans for the coming year. Only 47 percent of those surveyed were planning major new investments in this timeframe (compared to 60 percent last quarter), and only 37 percent were planning to add new workers (down from 58 percent last quarter). Sixty-eight percent now believe the domestic economy is growing, compared with 84 percent who believed growth was on the horizon last quarter. However, 85 percent still expected to gain positive revenue growth at an average of 7.3 percent, off slightly from 8.1 percent last quarter.