UK finance chiefs rate general election as their biggest risk
Growing political and economic uncertainty is becoming a problem for the UK’s largest companies, survey data released today shows.
When asked to rate the level of risk posed between 0 and 100, chief financial officers (CFOs) attached a 63 rating to May’s General Election and 56 to economic weakness in Europe and the possibility of a UK membership referendum.
The survey undertaken by consultants Deloitte covered 119 CFOs from the largest 350 companies in the UK.
Despite increasing uncertainty over the last six months, CFOs expect on average their business’ earnings to grow by 2.9 per cent in 2015. CFOs also expect business investment to increase by nine per cent in 2015.
“Rising levels of uncertainty have caused a weakening of corporate risk appetite which, nonetheless, remains well above the long-term average,” said Deloitte’s chief economist Ian Stewart.