UA News

Arizona's first published Business Leaders Confidence Index (BLCI) predicts that the state and national economies will see modest improvement in the third quarter of 2003. In addition, participants gave their expectations on sales, profits, hiring, capital expenditures and interest rates in their industry. Overall, the BLCI index registered at 60 on a scale of 0-100 with 50 being neutral.

"A number of uncertainties and geo-political risks have receded in recent weeks, and that should allow business leaders to move forward with plans to grow their companies," said Marshall J. Vest, director of economic and business research at the Eller College of Business and Public Administration at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Vest and his team at the UA helped design and administer the survey, and each quarter will summarize and report the results.

Those who responded to the third quarter survey rank expectations for sales the strongest of the seven survey components, with a score of 64. Profits followed with a value of 60, and hiring at 57. All predict improvement during the third quarter. Panel members also expect interest rates to decline in the third quarter. Complete results of the survey are online at www.blcindex.com.

"We're very pleased with the response we've received from the Arizona business community in our inaugural survey," said George M. Boltwood, Compass' executive vice president and head of corporate banking. "We think the BLCI is another tool we can offer to the business community in Arizona to help them manage their enterprises. It's also a helpful tool to us at Compass so we can better meet our customers' needs."

Compass also has worked with the Eller College to help underwrite the costs of printing and mailing the award-winning "Arizona's Economy" - a quarterly publication that provides up-to-date analysis of current business conditions, forecasts of future state economic activity and extensive current economic indicators for Arizona and its counties. Due to state budget cuts, the last four issues were published in electronic format only. With assistance from Compass Bank, printing and mailing will now resume and the results of each quarter's BLCI will be included as an insert within each issue.

The BLCI is also compiled by Compass and its university partners at The Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Alabama, the Mays Business School at Texas A&M University and the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado.

The Economic and Business Research program at the UA Eller College was established by the Arizona Legislature more than 50 years ago to provide relevant economic data to the Arizona business community. The nationally ranked Eller College is a center for professional education and frontier-advancing research. The Eller College offers undergraduate, master's degrees and doctorates in the traditional business disciplines-accounting, finance, marketing, economics and management and policy-as well as cutting-edge fields such as management information systems and public administration. Innovative entrepreneurship, international business and executive education programs bridge the classroom with the real world.

Compass Bank is a subsidiary of Compass Bancshares, Inc., a Southwestern financial holding company with $24.3 billion in assets and 355 full-service banking offices in Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, New Mexico and Texas. Compass Bancshares is among the top 40 U.S. bank holding companies by asset size and ranks among the top earners of its size based on return on equity. The company's earnings per share have increased for 15 consecutive years and dividends per share have increased for 22 consecutive years.