In its latest report, the Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation (MAPI) reduced its growth estimates for 2013 and 2014. MAPI expects the U.S. economy to expand 1.6 percent in 2013. Manufacturing production, MAPI says, will expand 2.2 percent this year, down from the organization’s June estimate of 3.1 percent. For 2014, MAPI predicts manufacturing growth to hit just 3.2 percent, down from its 3.6 percent estimate in June. Overall GDP growth should hit 2.8 percent in 2014, MAPI said. Those figures would still be an improvement over current growth. As IndustryWeek notes, the economy expanded at just a 2.5 percent annualized rate in the second quarter of 2013 while manufacturing declined 0.8 percent. Meanwhile, the Business Roundtable’s latest survey of CEOs found corporate leaders are more pessimistic about the future of the economy. The Roundtable’s index of CEO confidence dropped from 84.3 in the second quarter to 79.1 in the third. In the third quarter, 71 percent of CEOs said they thought their sales would increase over the next six months, down from 78 percent who said so in the second quarter. Only about one-quarter of CEOs said they planned to increase capital spending over the near term, down from 37 percent in the previous survey. Meanwhile, about one-quarter of those surveyed said they plan to cut staff. (MSCI Advocacy News 9-23-13)