World Monitor Magazine, №1/2020 WM_March 2020_FOR WEB (12.03.) | Page 36

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3 | 23rd Annual Global CEO Survey
What a difference two years
can make. In 2018, PwC’s
Annual Global CEO Survey
revealed a record level of
optimism regarding world-
wide economic growth. This
year, as CEOs look ahead to
2020, we see a record level
of pessimism.
For the first time, more than
half of the CEOs we surveyed
believe the rate of global
GDP growth will decline.
This caution has translated
into CEOs’ low confidence in
their own organisation’s out-
look. Only 27% of CEOs are
‘very confident’ in their pros-
pects for revenue growth in
2020, a low level not seen
since 2009. This finding
is compelling because the
change in CEOs’ revenue
confidence has proven to be
a reliable indicator of both
the direction and the level
of global GDP growth in the
year ahead, according to our
analysis.
What is clouding the view
from the top? In a word, un-
certainty. PwC’s 23rd Annual
Global CEO Survey, which
involved 1,581 chief execu-
tives in 83 territories, ex-
plores the sources and man-
ifestations of uncertainty
and how CEOs are taking ac-
tion to address it. Conducted
in September and October of
2019, this survey focuses on
CEO insights in the following
top-of-mind areas: growth,
technology regulation, up-
skilling and climate change.
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