As businesses prepare for the busiest shopping time of the year, African American C-E-O�s are cautiously optimistic about how their businesses will fare this holiday season. About a third expect business to be better than last year and nearly half expect it to be the same, according to the third quarter I-N-G Gazelle Index. The survey of C-E-O�s of the nation�s fastest-growing African American businesses also shows that economic confidence has increased for the third quarter in a row. Carolyn Harris-Burney, I-N-G�s Vice President of Domestic Emerging Markets.:

"These business owners can see their way clear to creating some new jobs and expanding their business to begin to capture some of the growth that they see and the optimism that they see in the overall economy."

The Gazelle Index also found that for the first time this year a majority of C-E-O�s, 50-point-six percent, say they expect to increase hiring in the next three months. The full survey can be found at w-w-w-dot-i-n-g-gazelle-index-dot-com.

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