September 2013
Featured in this insight: Financial services, Manufacturing, engineering & industrial, International
Survey shows four fifths of industrial CEOs expect the global economy to stay the same or worsen: Data from PricewaterhouseCoopers’ “16th Annual Global CEO Survey” shows, a third (34%) of industrial manufacturing CEOs expect the current economic outlook to worsen, nearly half (45%) believe it will stay the same, while only a fifth (18%) think the situation will improve.
On the whole, industrial CEOs, appear ‘somewhat confident’ about their company’s prospects for revenue growth over the next twelve months (46%) – similar to the overall sample of 45%. However, of industrial CEOs, two fifths (43%) were ‘extremely concerned’ that uncertain or volatile economic growth could hinder their company’s growth prospects.
Many industrial manufacturing CEOs are focusing on making their business more efficient – nearly half (46%) said operational efficiency is their top investment priority this year, while – four out of five reported their companies have cut costs over the past twelve months – up from seven tenths (70%) last year.
For industrial manufacturing CEOs, the US is nearly as important as China, with a quarter (27%) expecting it to be one of their top foreign growth markets this year. Brazil and Germany follow with a tenth (16%) each.
However, if concerns about the state of the US economy are proven to be well-founded, this picture may well change – about one third of industrial manufacturing CEOs think a recession in the US looks likely, while another two fifths (42%) aren’t sure – seven tenths (69%) of sector CEOs say a US recession would hurt their business.
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