Pessimism among South African chief executives escalates

FILE PHOTO: St. Petersburg International Economic Forum
JOHANNESBURG – South African chief executives are pessimistic about the prospects of growing their balance sheets in 2020 amid a bleak economic environment and heightened global uncertainty, the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) 23rd Annual Global CEO Survey said yesterday.

The survey found that only 14percent of the chief executives in South Africa were “very confident” about their 12-month revenue prospects compared to 18percent in 2019. South African chief executives were pessimistic about the rate of global economic growth with 44 percent in 2020 believing that it would decline over the next 12 months compared to 35percent in 2019.

PwC Africa chief executive Dion Shango told journalists that no matter where chief executives were looking, the path was fraught with uncertainty.

“Pessimism among South African chief executives has deepened this year characterised by a lack of business confidence and a decline in business activity overall. The current state of the economy and socio-political uncertainty is dampening business expectations,” Shango said.

The World Bank cut the country’s economic growth prospects to 0.9 percent in 2020 due to electricity concerns, while the IMF said it expected South Africa’s gross domestic product for 2020 to grow by a lowly 0.8 percent. Shango said despite the current uncertainty, there were still opportunities to be pursued.

Source: iol.co.za