Wednesday, January 28, 2009

World Economic Forum - CEO confidence plunges around the globe

Well its not taken me long to come up an update from the world economic forum's meeting in Davos. Just before the event could start PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) survey finding of 1,100 CEOs from across the globe and industry sector sets a grim backdrop to a four-day meeting of the world's business and political elite. Confidence among the world leaders and people who run the companies and shape the fate of economies has fallen to a new low.

Crisis that started due to banking system has spread to different industry sectors and today only a handful of business leaders are sure about the future of their companies revenues and profits. Survey suggests only 21% of CEOs said they were very confident of growing revenue in the next 12 months, down from 50 percent a year ago. And hopes for a short "V"-shaped recession appear to have evaporated with most business leaders expecting no more than a slow and gradual recovery over the next three years. Only about 34% CEO's see their revenues and growing over three years. "The three-year view is a bit better but the bad news is it is not that much better.

Message is very clear short term scenario is very bad but long term looks good but not as good as what we saw earlier. When economies come out of recession or a slowdown we see a 'V'-shaped recovery but according to some economists the concept of a vigorous recovery is for business cycles of the past but not for this post-crisis business cycle.

One question that came to my mind was about the emerging economies. What is the fate of emerging economies? What can they expect in the coming future? The Picture is equally gloomy for emerging markets as well. According to 'The Washington-based Institute for International Finance', a group of the world's biggest banks, said that it expects private capital flows to emerging markets to drop by nearly two-thirds to $165 billion this year. This clearly signifies the idea of "decoupling" of developed and developing world markets is just a myth.

Wait for more update from World Economic Forum, Davos

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