NEW YORK, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- Economists are beginning to feel more confident about the future of the economy despite a lot of false starts.
A Wall Street Journal survey showed economists have raised expectations for third-quarter growth and hope a rebound in corporate profits will prompt companies to finally boost capital spending and investment.
"I think we're headed into the real thing," said Allen Sinai, chief global economist at Decision Economics in New York.
The average forecast of the 54 economists who participated in The Wall Street Journal Online's economic survey this month put growth for the current quarter at an inflation-adjusted annualized rate of 3.6 percent, up from the 3.5 percent average forecast in a June survey.
One major sign of hope is in auto sales which ballooned to an annualized selling rate of 17.3 million vehicles through July, stronger than the 16.1 million rate for January through June.
