Accountants Confidence Index -- May 2014

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Our Accountants Confidence Index remained split between growth and contraction, after the short-term outlook dipped into the negative last month.

The ACI, created in partnership with ADP, is a monthly economic indicator that leverages the insights of accountants into the strength and prospects of businesses in the U.S. The 6-Month ACI reading for this month hovered just above 50, which is the divider between growth and contraction, but the 3-Month ACI reading stayed in negative territory, which it hit in April. The 3-Month ACI came in at 49.06, down from 49.92, while the 6-Month ACI hit 50.96, down from 51.30.

The index components largely declined, with a particularly large drop in the respondents' expectations for their own firms' growth (some of which may be attributable to a natural post-tax-season decline in revenue). Interestingly, their forecasts for the country as a whole, usually the worst performing of all the components, actually rose slightly.

The ACI is created from a monthly poll of the Accounting Today Executive Research Council, an online community of more than 1,500 tax and accounting professionals.

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