Upstate New York business leaders are more optimistic about conditions for their own industries and the state’s overall economy than at any time in the past four years, according to First Niagara Financial’s annual business survey. The Buffalo lender is acquiring New Haven’s NewAlliance Bancorp Inc.
However, the fourth annual survey’s overall confidence index of 98.4 on a scale of zero to 200 still shows a mixed viewpoint when these leaders look at current and future economic conditions.
Survey results were based on responses from 645 leaders of private businesses in the four major upstate New York markets of Buffalo, Albany, Rochester and Syracuse.
Responding to the survey, conducted during the final quarter of 2010, were chief executive officers, chief financial officers and other senior managers of private businesses with $5 million to $150 million in annual sales, the bank said.
