Executives of the country’s largest firms predicted...

Executives of the country’s largest firms predicted that the economy will weather rising interest rates and higher inflation and will still be going strong through the 1988 presidential election. The Business Council, composed of chief executives of 65 top U.S. corporations, said the country would be helped this year and next by a reviving manufacturing sector. In their semiannual economic report, the executives were more optimistic about business prospects than they had been just five months ago, even though they now believe that inflation will be worse this year and interest rates higher than previously predicted.