Most CFOs forecast strong US economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic
What will the US economy look like coming out of the pandemic?
Barron’s Roundtable’ panel discuss economy, job market rebound from COVID crisis
Most American CFOs think the U.S. economy is poised for a strong recovery from the coronavirus pandemic nearly one year after the crisis triggered the worst downturn since the Great Depression.
More than 70% of CFOs surveyed by the Deloitte Global CFO Program Leader said they expect the economy to improve over the course of the next 12 months as more Americans receive the COVID-19 vaccine, allowing state and local governments to ease pandemic-induced business restrictions. About 29% of CFOs rated the current economic conditions as "good," an increase of 16 percentage points from the previous quarter, according to the survey, published Thursday.
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In fact, more than one-third — about 37% — of CFOs said their company is already at, or above, its pre-crisis operating level. Just 10% of respondents said their company won't return to those levels until 2022.
The optimistic outlook is in line with new economic projections released Wednesday by the Federal Reserve: Policymakers expect real GDP, the broadest measure of goods and services produced in the nation, to surge 6.5% this year.
Officials forecast gains of 3.3% and 2.2% in 2022 and 2023, respectively. On the unemployment side, the central bank said it expects unemployment to fall to 4.5% by the end of 2021 and return to the pre-crisis level of 3.5% by 2023.
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The CFO study comes as more Americans are vaccinated, spurring hope that some of the hardest-hit service industry businesses will be able to more fully reopen at some point this year. On top of that, President Biden last week signed into law a sweeping relief plan that will pump another $1.9 trillion into the nation's economy.
The study, conducted between Feb. 8-19, involved 128 CFOs, 69% from public companies and 31% from privately held companies.
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