CFO Signals

Deloitte’s North American CFO Signals survey is a quarterly survey that captures the perspectives and actions of chief financial officers from some of North America’s largest and most influential businesses. The survey gauges CFO sentiment across a number of fronts, including the economy, capital markets, and the issues keeping them up at night.

FEATURED INSIGHT

CFO confidence continues to rise in Q4

6.6

The 6.6 reading marks the highest CFO confidence score in four years, and puts it in the high category.

Key Trends

CFO confidence score

The CFO confidence score rose for the second straight quarter. The 6.6 mark this quarter is substantially higher than the Q3 reading of 5.7—and pushes the rating up from medium to high confidence. For perspective: 6.6 is the highest confidence score since late 2021, during the post-COVID-19 pandemic recovery.

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Assessment of regional economies

CFOs raised their assessment of the North American economy this quarter. Thirty-six percent of respondents rate the current economy as very good or good, while 56% think it will be much better or better in 12 months. Both are up from Q3. An increasing number of CFOs foresee an improvement in other key global economies, as well.

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Own-company prospects & growth metrics

CFOs remain extremely upbeat about the future prospects for their businesses. Indeed, 86% say they’re more optimistic about their company’s financial prospects than they were three months ago—on par with their response in Q3 (90%). Despite the enthusiasm, forecasts across several metrics declined.

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Risk appetite

Nearly six out of ten (59%) respondents think now is a good time to be taking greater risks. That compares to just 36% in the previous quarter. Conversely, fewer than half (41%) of surveyed finance chiefs say the time is not right to take on additional risk. That’s a drop from the 65% result in Q3.

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Biggest internal and external risks

This quarter, the economy (56%) and inflation (53%) top CFO respondents’ list of the most worrying external risks. Their top internal concern? Cost management. More than half (53%) cite it as the most-worrisome internal risk. But efficiency and productivity ranks a close second, at 52%.

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Capital markets in the latest quarter

CFO interest in debt financing continues to grow—perhaps fueled by recent reductions to the Federal Reserve's target rate. More than half (54%) of surveyed finance chiefs say debt financing is attractive. In the Q3 survey—conducted almost entirely before the Fed’s first rate cut—only 33% of CFOs said the same.

Explore capital market insights

CFO confidence

What it measures: Overall CFO sentiment in the current quarter about economic and business conditions

KEY TAKEAWAY

Among finance chiefs surveyed, confidence soared this quarter to 6.6— the highest reading in four years. While this score is still lower than the record score of 7.2 in Q3 2021, it falls squarely in high confidence territory.

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Methodology Note

Deloitte’s CFO confidence score is a measure of overall CFO sentiment in the current quarter about economic and business conditions. In short, this formula averages the scores of the five current and five future business environment questions in the survey, and then discounts the US equity markets and equity financing conditions by 80%, and discounts debt-financing conditions by 50%. Scores are as follows: “very low” (1 to 3), “low” (3 to 5), “medium” (5 to 6), “high” (6 to 8), and “very high” (8 to 10). The typical range observed in the score for the last 20 quarters is between 4 and 7.