Amid persistent concerns over sluggish demand, executives report a more positive outlook for the global economy and their own companies. Here is a brief excerpt from another McKinsey Global Survey, “Economic Conditions Snapshot, December 2012.” To read the complete study, please click here.
Source: Strategy Practice
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Executives are ending the year with an outlook that’s more positive than negative, though they remain concerned that overall anemic consumer demand will threaten growth, according to our most recent survey on economic conditions.
[Note: The online survey was in the field from December 3 to December 7, 2012, and received responses from 1,575 executives representing the full range of regions, industries, company sizes, tenures, and functional specialties. To adjust for differences in response rates, the data are weighted by the contribution of each respondent’s nation to global GDP.]
Respondents’ views on country-level prospects differ notably by region. Those in developed Asia, for example, are more likely than their peers to say current conditions in their countries have worsened and that future conditions will improve. Across regions, new concerns have emerged: executives in developed economies are much more likely than they were in September to cite insufficient support from government (that is, a lack of fiscal or monetary policies that support economic and business activity) as a risk to domestic growth.
Beyond the more optimistic global outlook that respondents report, the latest results indicate two other bright spots. Executives broadly believe that demand for their companies’ products or services—as well as their companies’ profits—will increase in the next six months, despite their concern about sluggish global and domestic demand. They also predict that emerging markets will continue to drive global growth and are less likely to expect a sharp slowdown in China’s growth over the next year and the next decade than they were in September.
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To read the complete study, please click here.