Optimism among chief financial officers at the country's largest firms has risen for the third quarter running. But whilst corporate risk appetite has risen slightly, CFOs retain a ‘defensive’ stance with cost-cutting and the need to increase cashflow seen as priorities.
According to Deloitte’s latest CFO survey taken in mid-March, a net 17 percent of CFOs are more positive about the financial prospects of their business than they were three months earlier. The share reporting ‘high or very high levels of uncertainty’ fell to 36 per cent, down from 77 per cent in mid-2022. CFOs’ expectations for inflation have continued to fall and the share of who see this as a good time to take greater risk onto their balance sheets has risen slightly from the last quarter to 20 per cent. For the first time in three years, CFOs expect margins to increase over the next 12 months.
Meanwhile, geopolitics was seen as the greatest risk to businesses over the next 12 months, particularly events which could trigger cyberattacks.
Paul Schofield (photo, right), Deloitte Cambridge office senior partner, said: “Our latest Deloitte CFO survey findings confirm what many of us are seeing in the East of England – growing optimism among finance leaders. However, the challenges of the last few years have understandably invoked caution, with capex spend deprioritised and many expecting a rise in geopolitical risks to business. Pleasingly though, we see signs of a revived interest in acquisitions among many businesses in this region.”
