Majority CEOs somewhat optimistic over Pakistan’s economic growth in coming 12 months

A majority of Pakistani Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of companies remain somewhat optimistic about Pakistan’s economic growth in the coming 12 months as revealed in the recently-published PwC’s 27th Annual Global CEO Survey – Pakistan.

As per the survey, 49% of the CEOs surveyed were optimistic about Pakistan’s economic growth in the next year. Meanwhile, 23% of Pakistani CEOs expected the economic situation to remain the same in the next 12 months, while 28% of Pakistani CEOs see economic growth worsening.

“This confidence exceeds their outlook for the global economy, where only 39% express a positive view for the same time frame,” said the report. “However, this expected economic improvement, both locally and globally, is believed to be slight to moderate, rather than significant,” it found.

Economy: a difficult road ahead as well

An overwhelming 95% of CEOs exhibited confidence in the revenue growth of their companies over the next twelve months.

“Among these CEOs, 55% are very to extremely confident about this growth.

“Interestingly, when the time frame extends to three years, there is a slight decline in the overall confidence levels to 92% However, over this longer period, the proportion of CEOs who are very to extremely confident increases to 63%,” read the report.

On the other hand, inflation (55%) and macroeconomic volatility (47%) emerged as the key threats to the Pakistani CEOs to which their companies are highly or extremely exposed. This depicts “the complexities of the current economic and political landscape,” read the survey.

Moreover, 27% of CEOs identify geopolitical conflict as a profound threat, it noted.

Whereas, climate change, despite its potential for far-reaching impacts, is not perceived as an immediate significant threat by most Pakistani CEOs.

“Only 24% view their companies to be highly or extremely exposed to the threat of climate change in the next twelve months,” read the report. It noted that the ramifications of climate change on business operations are not yet seen as a pressing issue by CEOs.

The survey saw the participation of 62 CEOs across 16 industries. A total of 47 publicly-listed entities were a part of it, while over 50% companies had an annual revenue of $100 million-plus.