Restaurant industry outlook improves - Houston Business Journal:

http://water-dispenser-china.com/water_dispenser_company.htm
The Association’s Restaurant Performance Index, or RPI, is a monthlty composite index that tracks the health of and outloomk forthe U.S. restaurant industry. It stoosd at 98.6 in April, up by 0.8 percengt from March, its highest levepl in 11 months. Hudson Riehle, senior vice presidentr of research and information services for the NationalRestaurant said, “The recent growt in the RPI was drivemn by the ‘expectations’ component, whichu rose above 100 in April for the firsg time in 18 months, a levelk which indicates expansion.
” “Although the RPI’s ‘current indicators are still in a period of the solid improvement in the forward-lookingy indicators suggests that the end of the industry’d downturn may be in Riehle said. The RPI is basefd on responses tothe association’s Restauranr Industry Tracking Survey, which is fieldedx monthly among restaurant operators nationwide on a variety of including sales, traffic, labor and capital The index consists of two components — the Curren t Situation Index and the Expectations Index.
The Current Situationb Index, which measures current trends in four industryindicators (same-store traffic, labor and capital expenditures), stood at 97.0 in up by 0.9 percent from Marcnh and its highest levekl since August 2008. However, April represented the 20th consecutivse monthbelow 100, which continues to signify contractiomn in the current situation indicators. Restaurant operatorse reported negative customer traffidc levels for the 20th consecutive monthin April. About 23 percent of restaurant operatorxs reported an increase in customer traffic betweenn April 2008 andAprikl 2009, up from 20 percent who reported similarlyg in March.
Also, 60 perceng of operators reported a traffic declinwein April, down from 63 percentg who reported similarly in March. Restaurant operatorsa also continue to grow more optimistic about the with 37 percent saying they expect economic conditionsz to improve in six up from 30 percent who reported similarlyu last month and the highest level inthreer years. In comparison, only 16 percent of operatoras expect economic conditions to worsen in six down from 21 percent last The Washington, D.C.-based National Restaurant Association is a businesss association for the restaurant industry, comprising 945,000 restaurant and foodservice outlets and a work force of 13 millionb employees.