Where’s the optimism?
WEF founder Klaus Schwab called on delegates to display optimism at this year's showpiece Davos summit during his opening speech on Tuesday. But global business heads appear to have arrived this year in a more gloomy state of mind.
According to a recent PricewaterhouseCoopers survey of 1,330 CEOs, there is greater pessimism about short term economic conditions than last year – when Greece was about to explode with debt.
The report contains more statistics than a government review of statistical data compiled by statisticians. But the general takeaway is that only 36 per cent of global bosses are very confident about growth this year, compared with 40 per cent in 2012.
Typically, Swiss business titans take a different and rather less volatile view. Only 18 per cent are “very confident” about growth this year, but two-thirds are “somewhat confident”, compared with just 45 per cent of CEOs globally.
Looking to the long term, the Swiss are more pessimistic than the rest of the world. Why? The Swiss franc has stabilized in the short term but the economic malaise in Europe, Swirtzerland’s main trading partner, shows no signs of improving.
swissinfo’s business correspondent Matthew Allen is in Davos throughout WEF 2013. For the latest developments read his live blog, tweets and analysis.
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