Global CEOs expect recession to be mild and short: KPMG survey

New Delhi: As much as 58 per cent of about 1,300 global chief executive officers (CEOs) expect the recession to be mild and short, a survey of KPMG revealed. It also said they anticipated this recession, looming large, to hit over the next year.

These leaders were asked about their strategies and outlook during the survey. Fourteen per cent of senior executives identify a recession among the most pressing concerns today -- which is slightly up from early 2022 (9 per cent), while pandemic fatigue tops the list (15 per cent), said the survey -- the KPMG 2022 CEO Outlook.

Over the next year, more than 8 out of 10 (86 per cent) global CEOs anticipate a recession to hit, with 71 per cent predicting it will impact company earnings by up to 10 per cent, said the survey. A strong majority of senior executives believe that a recession will disrupt anticipated growth (73 per cent). However, three-quarters (76 per cent) have already taken precautionary steps ahead of a looming recession, it added.

Senior executives, despite these concerns, also feel markedly more confident about the resilience of the economy over the next six months (73 per cent) than they did in February (60 per cent), when KPMG surveyed 500 CEOs for its CEO Outlook Pulse survey.

Further, 71 per cent of leaders are confident about the global economy's growth prospects over the next three years (up from 60 per cent in early 2022) and nearly 9 in 10 (85 per cent) are confident about their organisation's growth over the next three years.

Some of the CEOs involved in the survey are Maria Dolores Dancausa of Bankinter, Nicola Downing of Ricoh Europe, Alexis George of AMP, Takahito Tokita of Fujitsu and TV Narendran of Tata Steel.

"Tested by enormous challenges in quick succession -- a global pandemic, inflationary pressures and geopolitical tensions -- it's encouraging that CEOs, surveyed in our 2022 CEO Outlook, were confident in their companies' resilience and relatively optimistic in their own growth prospects," said Bill Thomas, global chairman and CEO, KPMG.