Despite the various headwinds pushing back against corporate performance—the pandemic, inflation, supply chain issues and the “Great Resignation”—CEOs are actually pretty upbeat as they enter 2022. A survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers found CEO optimism to be at a 10-year high, with 77% of them predicting the global economy will improve this year.
PwC’s 25th Annual Global CEO Survey polled 4,446 CEOs in 89 countries and territories. It found that CEOs’ optimism for 2022 was just a hair higher than it had been one year previously—76%—but 54 points ahead of where it was in 2020. In the survey for 2020, 53% of CEOs predicted a declining economy.
Optimism about the global economy has increased, but as it was a global survey, there is some variation in the regions. Among the largest territories, optimism is highest in India, where 94% of CEOs anticipate global growth in the coming year, up from 88% last year. Optimism is also trending up solidly among CEOs in Japan—plus 16 points to 83%, from 67% last year—and is modestly higher in the UK, up five points to 82%. Italy and France saw large increases in CEO optimism, which PwC attributes to stronger than expected economic recoveries. CEO optimism in Italy reached 89%, up 18 points from a year ago, while France experienced the greatest increase in CEO optimism, soaring 25 points to 85%.
CEO optimism about the global economy declined most notably in the U.S., down 18 points to 70%, and was also slightly down in Brazil—dropping seven points to 77%, China—down nine points to 62% and Germany—down four points to 76%. This is possibly because inflation and supply chain constraints became more of an issue.
However, while U.S. CEOs have reservations about the global economy, they are comparatively confident about their own companies’ growth prospects, with 40% extremely confident about achieving revenue growth in 2022. India CEOs are similarly confident in their companies’ outlooks.
“While the ongoing pandemic and emergence of new variants cast a shadow over the year, the high level of CEO optimism we found speaks to the strength and resilience of the global economy and the ability of CEOs to manage through uncertainty,” says Bob Moritz, global chairman of PwC. “There is nothing ‘normal’ about the world we are working in, but we are getting used to it. We are seeing differences in confidence among countries, and there is no shortage of challenges to navigate, but it is encouraging that CEOs we spoke with on the whole feel positive about 2022.”
While optimism is high, the survey also found areas of concern. Cyber and health risks rank as the leading global threats, identified by 49% and 48% of CEOs, respectively. Not far behind is macroeconomic volatility, with 43% of CEOs either very or extremely concerned about the potential impact of inflation, fluctuations in GDP and labor market issues in the coming year. Another major underlying concern is the ability to attract and retain talent—69% of CEOs concerned about social inequality risks cite this as an impact, as do 62% of CEOs concerned about health risks.
“When CEOs look at the next 12 months, they are understandably concerned about potential threats to short-term performance that could result from disruptions, including macroeconomic volatility, cyber and health risks,” says Moritz. “While threats such as climate change and social inequality are further down the list, it is critical not to lose focus on these more long-term issues as they will define what sort of world we live in and hand down to the next generation.”
