C-Meter: February 2002

Last month, the confidence meter recorded its best results ever; this month, confidence levels have settled back somewhat. CIOs gave the chances that the overall economy would recover in the next 90 days a 5.5 on a scale of 1 to 10, four tenths of a point lower than last month's all-time high of 5.9. The numbers for their own industries also fell to 5.5. Meanwhile, the score for their own companies, 6.4, dropped just three tenths of a point. The most bullish overall was the computer services sector, at 6.2 for the economy, 6.6 for their own sector, and 7.1 for their own company. The least optimistic, for the second month in a row, was media/publishing/advertising, at 4.8, 4.5 and 5.4, respectively.