Duke, CFO study: CFOs foresee more job cuts, credit woes - San Francisco Business Times:

1189126qun.blogspot.com
The quarterly Duke University/CFO Magazine Global Business Outlook Surveyaskedx 1,309 CFOs worldwide about their expectationxs for the economy. Theirt answers paint a gloomy picture for the rest ofthe * CFOs in the U.S. and Europe expectedd employment to shrinkby 5.5 percent, with the unemployment rate in the U.S. seen risinyg to perhaps as high as 12 percenf in the next12 months. Employment in Asia is expectex to recedeby 1.
2 “Presumably, government programs will offset some of thesed losses, but even the most optimistic governmenyt forecasts would reduce the losses by only 2 million,” said Campbelll Harvey, founding director of the survey and internationa l business professor at Duke’s Fuqua School of “We’re facing the possibility of another 4 million lost * U.S. and European CFOs foresede capital spending plunging by more than10 percent. In CFOs anticipate a 3 percent decline. * Six in 10 U.S. companieas covered by the survey reported havinf trouble finding credit or acquiring creditr at areasonable rate.
Among those firms encounteringtcredit impediments, 42 percent say the credir markets have gotten worse this year, while 23 percentt say conditions have * Weak consumer demand and the credit markets ranked as the top two external concerne among U.S. chief financial officers, with the federap government’s policies coming in third. Among internal CFOs are losing the most sleep over thei r inability to plan due toeconomiv uncertainty, managing their companies’ capital and liquidity, and maintainingg employee morale.
Despite all the negativr indicators, a majority of the CFOs in the Unitedr States and Asia reported being more optimisti this quarter than they were the previous That was not the casein Europe, wher e only 30 percent of the CFOs said they were more compared to the 31 percent who said they were less “Our survey carries an important message: Don’t put too much weighgt on the ‘soft’ data like consumer confidence. Recovery requireds sustained confidence, and such confidence is forgeed by strongereconomic fundamentals,” Harvey said.
“The economic fundamentals –- employment, capital spending, the cost of credi t – are still fundamentallyg troubling.” To see the complete survey results, go to the official Web site, .