The vast majority, 97%, of chief financial officers at various companies say that the economy will take a turn for the worse before the end of 2020, according to a new poll from Deloitte reported by Newsweek.
Deloitte, a consulting firm, has released its CFO Signals report, which surveys various financial heads about their views on the economy.
- 97% said the economy will experience a slowdown or recession by the end of this year.
- 12% said a downturn has already started.
- 3% think a recession will occur by the end of this year.
- 12% of CFOs in last year's survey predicted a recession.
"There's not a lot of optimism in those numbers," Deloitte Global CFO Program head Sandy Cockrell told Newsweek.
"If there is a trade deal with China, a lot of the cloud will go away," Cockrell added. "That is such an unknown. If you look at this demographic of companies who participate in the survey, nearly all of them have supply chains involving China. Once there's clarity, it allows CFOs to do a much more precise level of planning and forecasting."
More than 80% of the CFOs surveyed this year work for companies that earn more than $1 billion in annual revenue, and more than 75% of the respondents' companies are publicly traded.
The majority of CFOs also said that their companies have faced moderate pressure or more from stakeholders to do more to address climate change:
- 71% said at least one stakeholder group has put pressure on their company.
- 90% said that their company has done at least one thing to fight climate change.
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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