Top business leaders are less gloomy about the prospects forthe global economy than last year but hardly brimming with confidence for 2013,according to a major survey released on the eve of the Davos forum.
International chief executives are also less confident thanlast year about growth prospects for their own companies, according to thesurvey of 1,330 CEOs conducted by financial services firmPricewaterhouseCoopers.
Only 28 percent of CEOs said they expected the globaleconomy to decline further in 2013, against 48 percent last year, while 52percent expected it to remain stable.
But only 36 percent said they were "veryconfident" in their company's growth prospects in the next 12 months, downfrom 40 percent last year and 48 percent in 2011.
"It's a little bit more positive than last year"in terms of predictions for the global economy, the chairman ofPricewaterhouseCoopers International, Dennis Nally, said at the release of thesurvey.
"CEOs are saying we're seeing another year where theeconomy is reluctant to recover," he said. "It's not all doom andgloom, but we see an economy that is struggling to get traction."
Despite steps to shore up faith in the eurozone, WesternEuropean business leaders were the most pessimistic among the surveyed CEOs,with just 22 percent saying they were very confident of growth, down from 27percent last year.
North American, Asia Pacific and African CEOs were also lessconfident, but Latin American executives bucked the trend, with 53 percent expressingconfidence in the short-term, up slightly from last year.
For individual countries, Russian executives were the mostconfident, with 66 percent saying they had high expectations of revenue growth.
Asked about their concrete concerns, topping the list wascontinued uncertainty over economic growth, with 81 percent of business leadersconcerned.
Other top worries included fiscal deficits,"over-regulation", lack of stability on capital markets and "theincreasing tax burden", PwC said.
The World Economic Forum is a global gathering of toppolitical and business leaders at the Swiss ski resort of Davos that startsofficially on Wednesday.
