Promo In A Down Economy | Must Read Consumers Covet Promo During Economic Hardships We may be headed for a recession this year. If so, promo businesses are well positioned to weather it. by James Khattak Are we due for a downturn? In late 2022 and into 2023, there were warnings that the U.S. would enter a recession this year. Will we? Have we? The consensus is that there likely will be a mild recession in 2023. But even if it’s severe, indicators point to the promo market’s fundamentals weathering any storm. The Early 2023 Outlook For promo, 2023 has been a strong year so far. A PPAI survey of its members in April found that 78.1% of respondents reported business being up in first quarter 2023. Respondents reported an average increase in revenue of 11.3% over first quarter 2022. The industry’s performance for the first three months of 2023 is particularly impressive compared against the extremely strong performance of 2022. But what of the economy? In March, PPAI Media joined a briefing hosted by The Conference Board – an economic and business management research firm and publisher of several widely tracked economic indicators – on the U.S. economic outlook. The business indicators it tracks have fallen well into negative territory, pointing to a recession in the U.S. economy starting sometime around the middle of 2023. Valentin Valkov / Eliks / Shutterstock.com PPAI • JUNE 2023 • 65
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