Most CEOs bullish about recovery in 2021 – survey

The majority of chief executive officers (CEOs) around the world are optimistic that global economic conditions would improve this year as coronavirus vaccines continue to be rolled out and growth opportunities emerge, a poll by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has found.

Results of the multinational accounting firm’s 24th Annual Global CEO Survey showed that of the 5,050 chief executives in 100 countries who responded, 76 percent expect the global economy to grow in 2021, compared to 22 percent last year and 42 percent in 2019.

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The figure is also the highest recorded since 2012.

Of the respondents, 25 came from the Philippines.

The latest poll was conducted in January and February.

“They’re tremendously optimistic, surprisingly so, especially with everything going on,” PwC Network Chairman Bob Moritz said during the unveiling of the poll results on Thursday, referring to this year’s respondents, which were more than last year’s 3,501.

Optimism about the economy’s growth potential jumped to a record “20 percentage points compared to previous years,” he noted.

Moritz attributed the CEOs’ bullishness to the rapid development and rollout of Covid-19 vaccines.

“The second thing they see is opportunity in their own organizations, particularly the ability to grow revenues over the next 12 months. And… they see that same opportunity over the next three years,” he said.

The survey also revealed that 36 percent are “very confident” about revenues growing within the next 12 months, compared with 27 percent in 2020.

CEOs in the technology and telecommunications sectors are the most confident about this at 45 percent and 43 percent, respectively. Those in the transportation and logistics and hospitality and leisure industries are the least confident at 29 percent and 27 percent, respectively.

Thirty-five percent of the respondents prefer looking to the United States for growth, compared to 28 percent for China.

On threats to growth prospects, pandemics and health crises were named the top threat. Cyberthreats came next, followed by the spread of misinformation and tax policy uncertainty.

On climate change, 30 percent expressed concern, higher than last year’s 24 percent. But this subject ranked only ranked ninth among perceived threats.

Twenty-seven percent of the CEOs admitted that they have little or no concern about it.

While there’s a tremendous amount of confidence, “there’s an underlying degree of uncertainty or fragility that’s in the system that all of the CEOs are worried about,” Moritz said.

“It only takes one or two major themes to happen [for that] optimism to [fade] away, You look at the price valuations that people are seeing in the marketplace, and how sustainable [they truly are], you see question marks around,” he added.

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“Or you see the issues of risks and some of the challenges that if we have a big cyberattack and something goes wrong, that’s going to be a problem for people. And as a result, that confidence lessens [and] the uncertainty increases.”

Looking ahead, most of the CEOs plan to increase spending on digital transformation.

“At the pandemic’s one-year mark, we’re at an inflection point as vaccination begins to ramp up around the world. Although the shape of the recovery remains unknown, it is clear that we cannot simply go back to the way things were before,” Moritz said.

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Article and Photo originally posted by Manila Times last March 14, 2021 and written by Anna Leah E. Gonzales.

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