On March 13 the March 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:
The survey, which concluded March 8, also revealed significant concerns about the U.S. economy. Despite improvements in confidence, CFOs consider there to be a 33 percent chance the U.S. will slip back into recession in the next 12 months.
also:
The U.S. Business Optimism Index rebounded this quarter to 55 on a scale from 0 to 100, above last quarter’s reading of 51 but still below the long-run average optimism of 59. U.S. optimism is above Europe’s reading of 53 but trails optimism in Asia (62.) Latin American CFOs are the most optimistic in the world (69, up from 66 last quarter.)
The CFO survey contains the Optimism Index chart, showing U.S. Optimism (with regard to the economy) at 55, as seen below:
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It should be interesting to see how well the CFOs predict business and economic conditions going forward. I discussed various aspects of this, and the importance of these predictions, in the July 9 2010 post titled “The Business Environment”.
(past posts on CEO and CFO Surveys can be found under the “CFO and CEO Confidence” tag)
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I post various economic forecasts because I believe they should be carefully monitored. However, as those familiar with this blog are aware, I do not necessarily agree with many of the consensus estimates and much of the commentary in these forecast surveys.
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The Special Note summarizes my overall thoughts about our economic situation
SPX at 1560.70 as this post is written