The American Chamber of Commerce reported the results of the survey on its members? opinions on the first quarter of the year and their outlook for the second quarter and the results were not pretty. According to the report, published partially in today?s El Caribe, the businesses surveyed reported that 47.1% felt that employment had gone down, 59% said that sales had fallen and 77.4% said that their production costs had risen. A total of 75.4% said that prices for their goods and services exceed those from the same period one year ago. When they were questioned about their expectations for the second trimester of 2003, the business community, represented by the Chamber, showed marked pessimism, with 64.7% either pessimistic or strongly pessimistic, and only 31% optimistic for the next period.