On June 20, 2024 The CFO Survey was released. It contains a variety of statistics regarding how CFOs view business and economic conditions.
In the CFO Survey press release, I found the following to be the most notable excerpts – although I don’t necessarily agree with them:
Among their concerns for the next year, U.S. CFOs indicate monetary policy (interest rates), inflation, and challenges in finding and retaining the right employees remain their top three worries. Moreover, concerns about ongoing inflation are compounded by 57 percent of companies responding that they expect the prices of their products to increase this year at a higher rate than normal.
CFO optimism remains moderate, almost identical to last quarter, though small companies are less optimistic than large companies. Expectations for real GDP dipped slightly to 1.8 percent growth over the next 12 months, down from 2.2 percent last quarter.
In a special question, nearly one-third of CFOs indicate that because of uncertainty about the upcoming election, their companies are postponing, scaling down, delaying, or permanently canceling investment.
The CFO Survey contains an Optimism Index chart, with the blue line showing U.S. Optimism (with regard to the economy) at 60.6, 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 past 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” label)
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I post various economic forecasts because I believe they should be carefully monitored. However, as those familiar with this site 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 5500.61 as this post is written
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