According to PwC’s 16th Annual Global CEO Survey, only 36% of CEOs worldwide are ‘very confident’ of their company’s growth prospects in the next 12 months. That’s down from 40% who were ‘very confident’ of short term growth last year and 48% in 2011, but still above the lows of 31% and 21% in 2010 and 2009.
Looking at the economy generally, 28% of CEOs say the global economy will decline further in 2013, and only 18% predict economic improvement; 52% say it will stay the same. While the CEOs’ outlook remains gloomy, the forecast is an improvement on last year when 48% of CEOs predicted the global economy would decline in 2012.
CEOs in Western Europe were least confident of short term revenue growth. Faced with ongoing recession, just 22% of Western European CEOs said they were very confident of growth, down from 27% last year and 39% in 2011. Confidence in short term growth also declined in North America to 33% (42% in 2012) and in Asia Pacific to 36% (42% in 2012).
Dennis M. Nally, chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers International, said:
“CEOs remain cautious about their short term prospects and the outlook for the global economy. However, given the high levels of concern among CEOs about issues – such as over-regulation, government debt, capital market instability – it is no surprise that CEO confidence has declined in the last 12 months.”
Other survey highlights included:
For more information on the PwC survey, click here.