Asia Pacific CEOs optimistic even as global CEOs remain pessimistic
Source: Middle East Insurance Review | Apr 2023
Asia Pacific CEOs are more optimistic about growth in their regions as compared to global CEOs. They see upskilling, automation, digital and cloud transformation, rebalancing supply chains and decarbonisation as their top investment priorities, according to PwC’s 26th Annual Global CEO Survey.
The survey, which polled 4,410 CEOs in 105 countries and territories in October and November 2022, revealed that nearly three quarters (73%) of CEOs believe global economic growth will decline over the next 12 months.
The bleak CEO outlook is the most pessimistic CEOs have been regarding global economic growth since the PwC survey began asking this question 12 years ago and is a significant departure from the optimistic outlooks of 2021 and 2022.
The survey also found that nearly 40% of CEOs think their organisations will not be economically viable in a decade if they continue on their current path.
CEOs are also seeing multiple direct challenges to profitability within their own industries over the next 10 years.
While cyber and health risks were the top concerns a year ago, the impact of the economic downturn is top-of-mind for CEOs this year, with inflation (40%) and macroeconomic volatility (31%) leading the risks weighing on CEOs in the short term – the next 12 months – and over the next five years.
The war in Ukraine and growing concern about geopolitical flashpoints in other parts of the world have caused CEOs to rethink aspects of their business models. CEOs are cutting costs but not headcount or compensation in order to retain talent and mitigate workforce attrition rates.
While climate risk did not feature as prominently as a short-term risk over the next 12-months relative to other global risks, CEOs still see climate risk impacting their cost profiles (50%), supply chains (42%) and physical assets (24%) from a moderate to very large extent. M