Despite following a gentle decline in numbers since June of 2002, most Canadian CEOs and business leaders characterize the Canadian economy as “good.” There are signs of a slight continuing rise in the number who would characterize the economy as “fair” – up nominally from 23% in June 2002 to 34% today.

Looking forward, business leaders generally do not expect the economy to worsen in the next six months. A sizeable minority of respondents (30%) believe that the economy is headed for improvement in the coming months
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Business leaders perceive the key issues for business today as being U.S. economic weakness and the impact of recent health related concerns like SARS, West Nile and Mad Cow Disease. Respondents are less concerned with Canadian tax levels, stock market uncertainty and interest rates, and show no concern toward threats of terrorism.

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