Paint it black

By Saara Tarjavaara, Melcrum

With the World Economic Forum about to commence in Davos, it seems appropriate that the health of the economy, or lack of it, is the topic on everyone’s lips.   

However, even before Black Monday, it seems there had been signs of dark clouds on the economic horizon.  In fact, as early on as late last year many CEOs had expressed concerns about a possible recession in 2008.  Pessimistic, or just prescient?

In the survey conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers the percentage of corporate leaders who were “very confident” about growth fell sharply last year, from 53 percent the year before - the highest levels of confidence since 2003 -  down to a lowly 35 per cent. 

Additionally, the survey showed that for the first time in over 11 years fears of a downturn were cited as the number one concern, with terrorism, the environment and pretty much everything else all taking a back seat to the ailing health of the economy.   

But it’s not all doom and gloom; CEOs from countries such as China and India don’t share the pessimism of their Western colleagues.  In fact, they were overwhelmingly positive in their responses, with 90% of Indian CEOs and over 70% of those from China indicating that they are “very confident” about the coming year. 

Time to think about a move to Beijing perhaps?