The CFO’s at all the big companies in the United States have gone into the year 2020 on the defensive as all of them but for a few anticipating that there is going to be a slowdown in the economy as there has been a stock market that has been overvalued as per a survey which has been released on this Thursday.
The survey of CFOs has shown that although the leaders are seeing the economy being good, they are anticipating that before the end of the year there is going to be a slowdown.
They are seeing the business and consumer spending becoming slower and there are 82% of these who are anticipating that more of the defensive actions are going to be taken like the reduction of the discretionary spending and the head count for staving off the headwinds which they see looming.
This slowdown is expected to be a particularly acute one in China and also in Europe. Although there were 69% of them who had seen the existing conditions in North America being good, the number for China is only 18% and it is just 7% for Europe as china has been shifting to an economy which is more consumer based and the battles which it is having with United States when it comes to trade that are holding it back.
The CFOs however are not foreseeing a worst-case scenario. The forecasts for a recession outright have fallen to 3% in the survey conducted in fourth quarter which is down from the survey which had been conducted in the first quarter in the year 2019. 97% though feel that a slowdown had already started or is going to start in the year 2020 sooner or later.
