The ongoing euro-zone crisis hasn’t scared foreign investors away from Europe, but it has made them more selective, according to Ernst & Young research.
President Barack Obama and Congress will need to quickly agree on how to avoid the so-called “fiscal cliff” and raise the debt ceiling, if the nation wants to avoid another recession—and a credit-rating downgrade, Fitch Ratings said Wednesday, becoming the latest to cite political gridlock as a risk to the nation’s creditworthiness.
Optimism about Canada’s economy is on the rise amongst executive chartered accountants. Nearly half (46%) expect staffing at their company to increase in the next year, up from 41% in the previous quarterly survey by the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants.
CFOs started 2012 more upbeat, but sentiment shifted as the domestic economic and political conditions deteriorated. Lack of political direction toward economic reform was the top concern.
China’s slowing productivity growth is weighing down economic growth in the world’s second largest economy. Political leaders are addressing the problem in the current five-year plan, and the policy changes are affecting how companies will do business in China.
Deep spending cuts and significant tax hikes are likely to further depress consumer spending in Ireland, increasing the pressure on businesses that are already struggling to deal with the effects of austerity. Irish Times correspondent Paul Golden reports on a country squeezed by bailout debt.
The CGMA global economic index is unchanged from the second quarter, but optimism in the US economy is dropping. US chief executives, financial directors and controllers are far less positive about the economy in their country and about their own businesses. These declines are offset by small gains in sentiment in the UK and other parts of the world, leaving the CGMA index at 58 for the third quarter.
A new study finds that developed markets in North America, Europe and Oceania have a lot of strengths that help businesses with growth potential flourish. But some emerging markets, especially in Asia, are competitive.
Unknown, complex risks that often are outside the executive team’s control increasingly threaten companies. Here are five strategies for battling those unknown risks.
CFOs in the Middle East were the most optimistic about their companies’ prospects worldwide, but this optimism was muted by concerns about political tensions in the Middle East and the euro-zone crisis, a Deloitte survey suggested.
The admission in June that bankers manipulated the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, revealed a gaping regulatory loophole that European lawmakers are targeting to close.
To continue to lift millions out of poverty, raise living standards of emerging middle-class consumers and entrench economic growth, African economies must accelerate the creation of wage-paying jobs.
Few US bank executives believe their local economies will improve in the next six months, and they take a dimmer view of the national outlook. A Grant Thornton survey found that 27.5% see an improving local economy, down from 44% who expected improvement in 2011.
After rising significantly at the end of 2011 and the beginning of 2012, CPA business leaders’ optimism over the US economy has faded substantially in recent months, according to the latest American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) Business & Industry Economic Outlook Survey.
Envoys from 21 countries in Asia and on the Pacific Rim will meet September 8th and September 9th at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) 20th economic leaders’ meeting in the far eastern Russian port city Vladivostok.
After about a decade of outpacing advanced economies, BRIC economies are seeing their growth slow. Deloitte’s most recent global economic outlook largely blames the euro-zone debt crisis but also on domestic challenges in some of the BRICs.
Companies in China and Japan are taking advantage of the euro zone’s woes and low US asset valuations to find acquisition bargains in developed markets.
European CFOs possess a far gloomier view of the next 12 months in terms of employment and other economic indicators than their US counterparts. Although US CFOs are keeping a close eye for residual threats from Europe’s woes, they are significantly more confident than European CFOs.
With the UK already in a double-dip recession and the euro zone expected to follow suit in the third quarter, financial markets are waiting to see whether Europe’s central banks will extend helping hands.
