CFO reported that thanks to a vastly lower risk of near-term financial chaos in Europe and an uptick in hiring in the United States, many CFOs and economists are more optimistic about business prospects for 2012.

About 54% of CFOs responding to the Duke/CFO Global Outlook Survey said they are more optimistic about the U.S. economy compared with their attitude last quarter, while 15.3% said they were less optimistic. That’s a shift from the December 2011 survey, when 35% of CFOs were more optimistic and 32% less.

Bolstering the pace of expansion – or at least not interfering with it – are Greece’s progress toward restructuring its debt and Europe’s avoidance of a near-term credit crunch, CFO reported. Domestically, CFOs are closely watching U.S. consumer demand, which has been flat the past four months when inflation is taken into account, the article said.

To read the full CFO article, click here.

To view the survey results, click here.