Global Biz

Global CEOs' confidence rebounds: survey

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-01-27 14:57

DAVOS, Switzerland: With their worst fears of prolonged recession behind them, CEOs' confidence for future growth has bounced back from the gloomy prospects of a year ago, according to a global CEO survey released on Tuesday.

Overall, 81 percent of CEOs worldwide are confident of their prospects for the next 12 months, while only 18 percent said they remained pessimistic, said the annual survey, which was published by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) ahead of the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos.

In comparison, 64 percent of CEOs said they were confident of their growth a year ago while 35 percent were pessimistic.

The survey also showed that 31 percent of CEOs were "very confident" of their short-term prospects, up 10 percentage points from last year.

But there is a striking difference in confidence levels among CEOs in emerging economies and those in developed nations. In North America and Western Europe, for example, about 80 percent of CEOs said they were confident of growth in 2010. That compared with 91 percent in Latin America and China, and 97 percent in India.

For the longer term, the results were more even. Overall, more than 90 percent of CEOs expressed confidence in growth over the next three years.

The rising confidence has translated into a planned boost in recruitment, with nearly 40 percent of CEOs expecting to increase their headcount this year. In contrast, about 25 percent of CEOs are planning job cuts over the next year, down from nearly half who decreased headcount in the past 12 months.

"The fears of a global economic meltdown have receded and CEOs are more upbeat about their prospects," said Deniis Nally, global chairman of PwC.

"CEOs' confidence is tempered, however, by the slow pace of recovery and the impact of often drastic cost-cutting and other steps taken to survive the downturn," he said.

But he noted that "the emerging economies are clearly recovering at a faster pace than those that are more developed."

The survey was conducted through interviews with about 1,198 CEOs in 52 countries during the last quarter of 2009.