Global chief executives have gained more confidence about business growth this year and a majority plan to increase head count to meet expansion needs, despite lingering uncertainty, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Taiwan said yesterday.
A total of 38 percent of chief executives polled for the accounting and consulting firm’s annual survey hold positive views about revenue increase this year, up 3 percentage points from last year, as the economic scenes around the world have improved, PwC Taiwan deputy chairman Steven Go (吳德豐) told a news conference in Taipei.
International research institutes expect economic activity to accelerate this year, with the IMF on Monday projecting world growth of between of 3.4 percent and 3.6 percent, better than 3.1 percent last year.
The uptrend is especially evident in emerging markets and developing economies, the Washington-based institution said.
Chief executives in India and Brazil are most upbeat about their business prospects at 71 percent and 57 percent respectively, the survey found.
CEOs in China, ASEAN, Germany and Japan are looking at different pictures, explaining why the number of optimistic executives in those economies is lower than the global average, PwC said.
Top-ranking executives are aware that income inequality has deteriorated due to globalization and many are worried that growing hostility toward globalization could cause governments to look inward, Go said.
A total of 58 percent of respondents believe that it is becoming harder to compete on the world stage as a result of closed national policies, he said.
Against that backdrop, chief executives have turned to a broader mix of countries as investment destinations, Go said.
The US led the list as the most favored investment destination, followed by China, Germany, the UK and Japan, the survey found.
In a ranking of cities, Shanghai, New York, London and Beijing are the top four investment destinations because they offer the strongest growth opportunity, the survey found.
Go said that 52 percent of respondents voiced plans to hire employees in the next 12 months, adding that “black-swan events” — the UK’s Brexit decision and the election of Donald Trump to be the next US president — have proven harmless to the global economy so far.
Economic uncertainty topped the list of concerns among with respondents, with 82 percent citing it as the biggest downside risk, followed by overregulation at 80 percent and availability of key skills at 77 percent, the survey found.
Top executives in Taiwan are also worried about the New Taiwan dollar’s volatility against the US dollar and Chinese yuan because of their focus on cross-border trade, Go said.
Chief executives increasingly have to develop a harmonious relationship between their workers and robots, as artificial intelligence gains popularity and importance, Go said.
PwC polled 1,379 chief executives in 79 nations between September last year and last month.
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