New York The Institute for Supply Management (previously the National Association of Purchasing Management) held its fourth annual Economic Summit here on Dec. 11.

Among the reports issued at the summit was the consensus of a panel of purchasing and supply executives that growth will resume later this year in the manufacturing sector. The results were reported in ISM's Semiannual Economic Forecast.

The opinion was presented by Norbert Ore, C.P.M., chairman of the ISM Manufacturing Business Survey Committee.

"Manufacturing purchasing and supply executives are less than bullish about their organizations' prospects for the first half of 2002 while predicting significant improvement during the second half," Ore said.

Total revenue, however, is expected to increase by only 3.2 percent, far less than the growth of years prior to 2001. Non-manufacturing revenues are expected to rise 7.6 percent.

A pullout from recession will be slow, the report noted, with most growth in the last half of the year.

The forecast predicts improved business revenues in both the manufacturing and non-manufacturing sectors of the U.S. economy, and similar rebounds in Europe and Latin America, but the increases will be slow in coming.