CFOs expect slower growth into 2024 amid persistent inflation
Chief financial officers tagged inflation and cost of capital as the top risks facing their businesses as they brace for slower growth in the next 18 months, a survey from FTI Consulting and CFO Dive found. The research polled 303 senior finance executives in North America, EMEA, and APAC in August 2022.
Most respondents expected slower growth in the next 18 months, with companies over $5 billion estimating the lowest growth at 1%-10%. Companies with between $1 billion and $5 billion in revenue were most bullish, with expected growth of 11%-50%.
More than three-quarters of finance execs said increases in inflation and interest rates pose a medium or high risk to their businesses.
“This year’s survey results echo what we’re hearing from our CFO clients,” said Gina Gutzeit, global leader of the office of the CFO solutions practice at FTI Consulting. “By most accounts, the global economy is heading for a slowdown in 2023. Rising inflation, high interest rates, escalating international conflict, and lingering COVID-19 effects are just some of the factors that continue to put downward pressure on global economic growth.”
Amid toughening conditions, CFOs will be looking to manage revenue pipeline and enterprise costs – with a focus on productivity and automation.
Faced with demand volatility and supply uncertainty, CFOs are also anxious to better predict revenue potential. As such, they’re looking at analytics solutions to drive real-time transparency into current and forecasted profits to make better finance decisions.
Improved forecast accuracy gains added importance as higher borrowing costs put pressure on working capital, cash flow, and liquidity.
As such, over half of CFOs are putting more focus on technology implementation, especially proven solutions in cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) and enterprise performance management (EPM) technologies.
Finance execs also told FTI Consulting that talent and worker productivity continues to be a high-focus area as they manage hybrid work models and talent shortages. Sixty-nine percent of respondents said their companies had employees who worked hybrid or fully remote, while just 21% said their companies were fully in-office.
More than half of respondents also said they would be spending more time on ESG reporting in the next 18 months, as investor demands and regulatory changes place additional pressure on the area.
