The survey reveals the concerns, risk blind-spots and confidence levels of business leaders across the globe. The Professional Services perspective makes interesting reading.
Politics and economics are close bedfellows and business leaders are clearly rattled by the threat to trade growth.
- Continued expansion depends on robust global economic growth and governments pursuing appropriate monetary, fiscal and especially trade policies.
- It’s clear that escalating trade tensions are affecting business confidence and investment decisions, as are concerns around political events such as Brexit.
- Just under half of businesses (48%) think that Brexit will have a moderate or heavy impact and just over a third (34%) say trade wars are hitting growth plans and impacting business strategy.
It’s not just the economic impact of Brexit which is alarming UK business leaders however. They also expressed concern at the distraction it is causing in terms of managing the UK economy and the uncertainty it is creating in terms of clarity over transition arrangements and future state regulations. Companies are cautious about committing to investments until they know what will be expected of them in the new world order.