CEOs’ confidence rises despite economic uncertainty, says report

Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) worldwide are confident in their growth prospects and their outlook for the global economy to rise, despite their concern about new risks and economic uncertainty, a report by PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC), has said.

Findings of PwC’s 20th yearly survey of CEOs worldwide said 38 per cent (2016: 35 per cent) of CEOs are very confident about their company’s growth prospects in the next 12 months, while 29 per cent of them (2016:27 per cent) believe global economic growth will pick up this year.

The findings released at the just-concluded World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland showed that while business leaders are more positive in their outlook, their levels of concern about economic uncertainty is at 82 per cent.

The report of the survey, which was carried out between September and December last year, showed that while the CEOs’ concerns about over-regulation and lack of key skills are at record levels of 80 per cent and 77 per cent, worries about protectionism are growing, with 59 per cent of CEOs’ expressed concern about protectionism increasing to 64 per cent for in the United States and Mexico.

Although positive on the benefits of globalisation in building the free movement of capital, goods, and people, CEOs questioned what globalisation has done to close the gap between rich and poor or mitigated the issue of climate change. This is in contrast to the first PwC CEO survey in 1998 when CEOs were positive about the drivers of globalisation.

On the reports, its Global Chairman, Mr. Bob Moritz said: “Despite a tumultuous 2016, CEO confidence is moving back up –albeit slowly and still a long way from the levels we saw back in 2007.

“But there are signs of optimism right across the globe, including in the UK and US, where despite predictions of a Trump slump and a Brexit exit, CEOs confidence in their company’s growth are up from 2016. And that mood is reflected elsewhere, with more CEOs across the world targeting the US and UK for investment than a year ago.”

While noting that CEOs are more confident in the opportunity for growth, Moritz said “this year they told us these three concerns that were top of mind: a people and technology strategy that creates a workforce fit for the digital age; preserving trust in their businesses in a world of increasingly virtual interactions; and making globalisation work for everyone by engaging ever more with society and collaborating to find solutions.”

The report said in sharp contrast to last year, CEOs confidence in their own one year revenue growth is on the rise in nearly every major country across the world…with India (71per cent), Brazil, where confidence levels have more than doubled (57 per cent), Australia (43 per cent) and the UK (41per cent) topping the table.”

Confidence also rose by 11 points in China to 35 per cent, six points in the US to 39 per cent and three points in Germany to 31 per cent. In Switzerland confidence levels have more than doubled to 34 per cent. Bucking the confidence trend are Spain, Mexico and Japan where confidence levels have dropped, markedly so in Japan where confidence has plunged from 28b per cent in 2016 to 14 per cent today.

- TheNation