The world’s CEOs see the world as a much more dangerous place than they thought three years ago when they were wrestling with the impact of the global financial crash, and two thirds of CEOs see more threats then last year.
The Annual Global CEO survey from PwC was released in Davos by PwC President Dennis Nally and found CEOs still worried about over regulation, access and retention of skilled people, national debt and tax as well as geopolitical uncertainty which has taken a larger place in their fears this year.
The Middle East saw the largest drop in confidence with only 34 per cent of CEOs saying that they were optimistic about the next year, which is down a substantial 35 points from the 79 per cent who said they were optimistic two years ago as worries over the oil market and regional politics dominated.
Given the violence in the region, it was not surprising that 94 per cent of Middle East CEOs said that their top concern was geopolitical uncertainty.
This compared with 87 per cent in Africa who rated exchange rate volatility was their main worry, as did 85 per cent of Latin Americans. CEOs in North America and Western Europe were worried about the increasing tax burden and over regulation.
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But there was some good news for the Arab world as the UAE made it into the top ten countries world wide that global CEOs see opportunities for investment. This list was headed by the USA, followed by China, Germany, UK, India and Brazil, with the UAE, Japan, Mexico and Russia all considered equally interesting.
Higher rating
This business interest in the UAE was attributed to the UAE’s openness and ease of doing business, and its position as a hub for the region from where businesses can operate effectively, thus allowing the UAE to be rated higher than larger economies in the region like Saudi Arabia that are harder to get into.
The survey showed growing business confidence in India which in not matched by similar optimism globally. A surprisingly large 64 per cent of Indian CEOs were optimistic about business prospects in the forthcoming year, which PwC reported was largely due to optimism about the reforms from the Modi government, even if it is still early days. But a depressingly small 9 per cent of international CEOs thought India was an interesting prospect for investment, due to doubts over the effectiveness of Modi’s reforms, and lingering worries over excessive regulation, corruption, and red tape.
