Central European CFOs are unwilling to jeopardise steady recovery |
Based on a Deloitte survey undertaken in May and early June of the CFOs of 138 leading companies across the region’s six largest economies – Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia – the report provides some fascinating insights into CFO opinions at a key moment in economic history.
Overall, a picture emerges where Central Europe’s CFOs are not keen in any way to jeopardise the steady recovery that many of their companies and economies have now been experiencing for some time.
“Our findings suggest an environment in which companies are concentrating on what they do best. The region’s CFOs indicated they are largely happy with their current debt provisions – while close to 60% expect levels of balance sheet debt either to increase a little or to stay the same over the next three years, more than half the sample expect to see their ability to service their debt improve across the same period.”
Gavin Flook, Regional Function Leader, Audit,
Deloitte Central Europe
Local country insights
Naturally, there are differences at a country level.
- Polish CFOs show a smaller increase in confidence than most of their peers, possibly because they started at a higher level due to the continued strength of the Polish economy.
- Czech CFOs are marginally happier to take on new risk than those from other countries, while those in Hungary and Slovakia are the most risk-averse of all.
- Growth in confidence is widespread in Croatia, while most Romanian CFOs are bullish about expected improvements in their ability to service debt.
- While an atmosphere of cautious optimism prevails across the region (47% of those surveyed told us they are very or somewhat optimistic about the financial prospects for their companies compared with three months earlier) CFOs remain largely risk-averse.
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| Download the 2 page summary of the CE CFO Survey |
Download a full copy of the CE CFO Survey. |