Duke / CFO Magazine Global Business Outlook Survey Of December 11 – Notable Aspects

On December 11 the December Duke/CFO Magazine Global Business Outlook Survey (pdf) was released.  It contains a variety of statistics regarding how CFOs view business and economic conditions.

In this CFO Survey, I found the following to be the most notable excerpts:

Nearly half of U.S. companies are reluctant to hire full-time employees because of the ACA. One in five firms indicates they are likely to hire fewer employees, and another one in 10 may lay off current employees in response to the law.

also:

In spite of concerns over the ACA and the budget deficit, many CFOs believe business
conditions will improve in 2014.

Fifty-two percent of U.S. business leaders say economic conditions for their firms will be
better in 2014 than in 2013. Fifty-two percent of European CFOs believe business conditions
will improve in 2014 for their firms, relative to somewhat weak conditions in 2013. CFOs in
the developing economies are also more optimistic about 2014, with 60 percent of CFOs in
Latin America and Asia, and 59 percent in Africa, expecting improvement.

Full-time domestic employment during 2014 should grow 1.4 percent in the U.S., down
from 1.8 percent expected growth in last quarter’s survey. Capital spending should increase
by a robust 7.3 percent, up from a projection of 4.8 percent last quarter. U.S. companies
indicate 2014 will be another strong year for profits, with earnings expected to rise by more than 10 percent.

The CFO survey contains the Optimism Index chart, showing U.S. Optimism (with regard to the economy) at 57.2, as seen below:

(click on image to enlarge)

Duke CFO 12-11-13 - Optimism_US_2013Q4

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Please Note – The above is abstracted from the EconomicGreenfield.com (published by StratX, LLC) post of January 6, 2014, titled “December 2013 Duke/CFO Magazine Global Business Outlook Survey – Notable Excerpts”

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StratX, LLC offers the above commentary for informational purposes only, and does not necessarily agree with the views expressed by these outside parties.

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StratX, LLC is a management consulting firm and strategic advisory that focuses on the analysis of current and future weak(ening) economic conditions, and offers businesses and other entities advice, strategies, and actionable methods on how to optimally adapt to such challenging, complex conditions.