The second quarter AICPA Economic Outlook Survey reveals that business executives are more guarded about the twelve-month outlook for the U.S. economy than they were last quarter. The AICPA survey polls CEOs, CFOs, controllers, and CPAs in executive and senior management accounting roles.

According to this latest survey, the CPA Outlook Index fell two points, to 67, after two solid quarters of improvement. Overall, optimism for the U.S. economy dropped 9% this quarter with only 34% of respondents indicating they were optimistic or very optimistic about the outlook for the U.S. economy.

At the same time the percentage of pessimists increased from 22% to 26%. This change in outlook parallels what happened between 1Q and 2Q in 2011.
 
According to the report, the majority of CPAs surveyed continued to have a positive outlook for their own organizations with 54% responding that they were optimistic or very optimistic. This was consistent with the 55% who responded optimistically in 1Q 2012 and is the same as a year ago. Optimists continue to outnumber pessimists by about a 4 to 1 margin (54% to 13%). Expectations for expansion also remained steady with 61% of CPA executives, the same as in 1Q 2012, expecting their organization to expand at least somewhat in the next 12 months. This is the same as 2Q 2011.

Read the full AICPA Business & Industry U.S. Economic Outlook Survey 2Q 2012.