Kentucky Economic Forecasters Slightly More Optimistic

From Kentucky Public Radio's Tony McVeighThe economic experts who advise Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear and legislative leaders appear slightly more optimistic than they were two months ago.The Consensus Forecasting Group met in Frankfort to assess the latest economic indicators, and Chairman Larry Lynch says they found some encouraging signs.“The sentiment of the group was slightly more optimistic," says Lynch. "We’re just talking about optimistic as compared to October now. We’re still less optimistic than we were back in May when we did the official revision for 2010.”Lynch says manufacturing production, imports and exports, retail sales and corporate profits are up, but jobs are still lagging.In two weeks, the consensus group will crunch the numbers and offer new revenue projections on which to base the next biennial state budget.