Pessimistic views on business prospects emerge chief financial officer (CFO) from 18 European countries participating in this year’s edition European CFO survey consulting company Deloitte. Spain and Greece show the highest rates of pessimism at 66% and 53% respectively. Since the start of the war, a strong climate of pessimism and uncertainty prevails among the vast majority of CFOs, who do not expect an immediate improvement in the economic climate.

Consumer goods and auto industry CFOs seem to be the most pessimistic as high inflation coupled with geopolitical risks and supply chain issues are the biggest sources of uncertainty.

However, 64% expect revenue to increase and one in two expect hiring to increase over the next 12 months.

On the contrary, in the tourism sector, most CFOs are optimistic, given that uncertainty decreased in the spring of 2022, when the survey was conducted, to 66% from 77% in autumn 2021. At the same time, CFOs are optimistic about the growth in revenues, capital expenditures and hiring, although most of them predict a deterioration in operating margins.

In Greece, 53% of CFOs are less optimistic about their company’s outlook, up 31% from three months ago. 76% of respondents assess the level of external financial and economic uncertainty as high, while 66% of them consider the growth of transport costs as the main problem in the supply chain. However, 64% of Greek CFOs surveyed by Deloitte believe that there will be revenue growth in the next 12 months, and one in two believe that their staff will increase in the next twelve months.

“Business now, in the midst of successive, symmetrical and unprecedented crises in the European and global economies, is once again called upon to adapt to a complex reality. And develop a strategy that takes into account geopolitical shocks and inflationary pressures, but is based on digital transformation and includes ESG criteria and actions against climate change. Perhaps one of the most difficult circumstances in recent decades, we have seen business leaders appear more pessimistic than they have been in the past seven years as they face an external and dangerous counterbalancing factor, the outbreak of the most serious war yet. in Europe after World War II,” comments Panagiotis Hormovitis, Partner, Financial Advisor, Chief Financial Officer Program, Deloitte.