August 2, 2010While Queensland CEOs’ confidence on employment, investment and profit has held up this quarter, there has been a significant decrease in their confidence about the economy, according to the third CEO Financial Index.
The Index is a commissioned quarterly survey of
The CEO Institute’s Queensland members, and tracks CEOs’ expectations of business and economic outlook.
The Institute’s Queensland CEO Sue Forrester says the third quarterly poll, taken in July, shows Queensland CEOs are not as bullish as three months ago, but confidence is still higher than in 2009.
Only 58 percent agreed the economy is heading in the right direction (down from 82 percent last quarter), yet expectations of increasing investment, employment and profitability are holding up.
Sixty-one expect to employ more in the next six months, 61 percent expect to invest more, and 49 percent expect higher profits (with only 23 percent expecting a decline in profit).
This compares to the March results, where 61 percent of leaders expected to be hiring, 63 percent expected to be investing and 56 percent expected higher profits (25 percent expected lower profits).
“The mood of CEOs was quite upbeat in the first two quarters of this year and while confidence about the economy appears to be on the wane, respondents still expect their own businesses to be fairly robust for the next 6 months,” Forrester says.
“Issues CEOs faced during the Global Financial Crisis have resurged. It was not mentioned directly 6 months ago, but is now a significant concern for our members,” she says.
BIGGEST IMPACTS ON BUSINESSAccording to Forrester, respondents to the CEO Financial Index indicated the biggest impact on their business in the next six months will be the federal election (24 percent) and the mining tax (16 percent).
Business confidence and the GFC were the next on the list with 11 percent each, and 9 percent of CEOs expect some difficulty in hiring appropriate staff.
CEOs said the biggest impact on their businesses in the past six months had been the Resource Super Profits Tax (16 percent).
Queensland CEOs were fairly evenly divided on whether taxing mining companies differently from other companies was a good move - with neither side gaining more than 50 percent support.
The CEO Financial Index for the 2010 June quarter is 33, down from 45 in March and slightly above the 30 recorded in the initial Index in December 2009.
