10.58 AM Tuesday, 19 March 2024
  • City Fajr Shuruq Duhr Asr Magrib Isha
  • Dubai 05:07 06:20 12:29 15:54 18:33 19:47
19 March 2024

Middle Eastern CEOs most hopeful about global economic growth

44% of ME CEOs very confident of revenue growth (Shutterstock)

Published
By Staff

CEOs in Asia and the Middle East are most hopeful about global economic growth in the next 12 months.

This is according to The Price Waterhouse Cooper’s (PwC) 18th Annual Global CEO Survey. Results of the survey were released at the opening of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

CEOs in the Asia Pacific region (45 per cent) are most confident of revenue growth, about the same as last year. The Middle East is still one of the most optimistic regions with 44 per cent of CEOs very confident of revenue growth, although this is down markedly from last year’s 69 per cent. CEO confidence in growth is higher in North America, rising to 43 per cent from 33 per cent. CEOs in Western Europe (31 per cent) and Central and Eastern Europe (30 per cent) are least optimistic about their company’s growth prospects.

Looking country by country, India’s CEOs top the list, with 62 per cent very confident in their short-term growth prospects. Other leading countries include Mexico (50 per cent), the US (46 per cent), Australia (43 per cent) the UK and South Africa (39 per cent), China (36 per cent), Germany (35 per cent) and Brazil (30 per cent).

Among the least confident countries are France (23 per cent), Venezuela (22 per cent), Italy (20 per cent), Argentina (17 per cent) and, at the bottom of the list, Russia, with only 16 per cent of CEOs very confident of revenue growth for 2015. This is down from 53 per cent last year when Russia’s CEOs were the most confident in the world.

On the global economy, CEOs are less optimistic about global growth prospects than a year ago, with 37 per cent thinking global economic growth will improve in 2015.

This is down from 44 per cent last year. Significantly, 17 per cent of CEOs believe global economic growth will decline, more than twice as many as a year ago (7 per cent). The remaining 44 per cent expect economic conditions to remain steady.

Despite the overall declining outlook for the global economy, CEOs remain confident about prospects for their own company; 39 per cent worldwide said they are ‘very confident’ their company’s revenues will grow in the next 12 months. That’s the same as last year; though up slightly from 36 per cent in 2013.

CEOs are concerned about the availability of key skills (73 per cent), fiscal deficits and debt burdens (72 per cent), geopolitical uncertainty (72 per cent), increasing taxes (70 per cent), cyber threats and the lack of data security (61 per cent) - going up rapidly from 48 per cent last year – as well as social instability (60 per cent), shifting consumer patterns (60 per cent) and the speed of technological change (58 per cent).

CEOs concerns are up in all areas compared to last year with the exception of energy costs where they are slightly down at 59 per cent.

[Image: Shutterstock]