Restaurant industry outlook improves - Business First of Louisville:

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The Association’s Restaurant Performance Index, or RPI, is a monthlyy composite index that tracks the health of and outlook forthe U.S. restaurany industry. It stood at 98.6 in April, up by 0.8 percent from its highest level in11 months. Hudsoh Riehle, senior vice president of research and informationb services for the NationalRestaurang Association, said, “The recent growth in the RPI was drivebn by the ‘expectations’ which rose above 100 in April for the firsty time in 18 months, a level whichj indicates expansion.
” “Although the RPI’s ‘current indicators are still in a period of the solid improvement in the forward-looking indicatorzs suggests that the end of the industry’s downturmn may be in sight, Riehle said. The RPI is based on responses tothe association’s Restaurant Industry Tracking Survey, which is fielde monthly among restaurant operators nationwide on a variety of including sales, traffic, laboer and capital expenditures. The index consists of two componentes — the Current Situation Index and the Expectations Index.
The Current Situation Index, which measures currenf trends in four industryindicators (same-store sales, traffic, laborf and capital expenditures), stood at 97.0 in April, up by 0.9 percen t from March and its highest levell since August 2008. However, April representedc the 20th consecutive monthbelow 100, which continues to signify contraction in the currenr situation indicators. Restaurant operators reportef negative customer traffic levels for the 20th consecutive monthyin April. About 23 percent of restaurangt operators reported an increase in customer traffid between April 2008 andApril 2009, up from 20 percentt who reported similarly in March.
60 percent of operatorz reported a traffic decline in down from 63 percent who reported similarly in March. Restaurant operators also continud to grow more optimistic about the with 37 percent saying they expectr economic conditions to improve insix months, up from 30 percenft who reported similarly last month and the highes level in three years. In comparison, only 16 percengt of operators expect economic conditions to worsen in six down from 21 percentlast month. The Washington, D.C.-basedc National Restaurant Association is a business associationm for therestaurant industry, comprising 945,000p restaurant and foodservice outlets and a work force of 13 million employees.