U.S. executives more positive than Europe--particularly manufacturers.

• Author: Heffes, Ellen M.
• Position: BUSINESS OUTLOOK

United States executives remain more bullish about their business prospects over the next 12 months than their European counterparts, according to a recent survey. And the postive sentiment was strongest among manufacturing sector executives, whose optimism increased since they were surveyed last October.

U.S. service-sector executives, while also generally optimistic, showed a modest decline in sentiment.

The results are from the latest KPMG Global Business Outlook survey, which was conducted by KPMG LLP. The survey polled about 11,000 executives across 6,200 companies representing manufacturers and service providers in 17 countries.

"Overall, executives are telling us they are optimistic about the future, particularly in the United States, where the recovery appears to be taking hold more quickly than in Europe, as well as in the BRIC [Brazil, Russia, India, China] countries, which were generally less impacted by the downturn," said Mark A. Good-burn, vice chairman and head of Advisory for KPMG LLP.

Goodburn noted that the baseline for measuring business activity was set rather low as the market hit bottom last year, though manufacturing executives are clearly optimistic about prospects for growth in business activities, revenues and profits over the next 12 months.

Yet, despite an expected uptick in business activity, both manufacturers and service providers were hesitant to predict new hiring during the period, with a majority of respondents maintaining a neutral view on future hiring prospects.

Among areas of note from the survey: * Business Activity--Manufacturing: Seventy one percent of U.S. executives said activity would be...