ECONOMY

Purchasing Managers Less Optimistic: According to the National Assn. of Purchasing Management’s semiannual economic forecast, a majority of purchasing executives from some of the biggest companies around the country expect U.S. economic growth to slow down over the next few months in continued fallout from earlier interest rate hikes. While 73% of the purchasing executives said they expect their revenues to be greater this year than in 1994, the level of improvement is expected to be only about 6.1%, down from an earlier prediction of 8.5% in December and from last year’s increase of 21.8%.