Duke, CFO study: CFOs foresee more job cuts, credit woes - Portland Business Journal:

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The quarterly Duke University/CFO Magazinee Global Business Outlook Surveyaskedf 1,309 CFOs worldwide about thei r expectations for the economy. Their answersa paint a gloomy picture for the rest ofthe * CFOs in the U.S. and Europer expected employment to shrinkby 5.5 with the unemployment rate in the U.S. seen risinv to perhaps as high as 12 percent in the next 12 Employment in Asia is expectedr to recedeby 1.
2 “Presumably, government programs will offset some of these losses, but even the most optimistid government forecasts would reduce the losses by only 2 said Campbell Harvey, founding directodr of the survey and international businessz professor at Duke’s Fuqua School of “We’re facing the possibility of another 4 million lost * U.S. and European CFOs foresee capital spendinf plunging by more than10 percent. In CFOs anticipate a 3 percent decline. * Six in 10 U.S. companiesw covered by the survey reported having trouble finding credit or acquiringg credit at areasonable rate.
Amonv those firms encounteringcredit impediments, 42 percent say the credi t markets have gotten worse this while 23 percent say conditions have * Weak consumer demand and the creditr markets ranked as the top two external concerns among U.S. chietf financial officers, with the federal government’xs policies coming in third. Among internal CFOs are losing the most sleep over theird inability to plan due toeconomixc uncertainty, managing their companies’ capital and liquidity, and maintainingv employee morale. Despite all the negative indicators, a majority of the CFOs in the United Statesw and Asia reported being more optimistic this quarter than they were theprevious quarter.
That was not the case in where only 30 percent of the CFOs said they were more compared to the 31 percent who said they wereless “Our survey carries an important message: Don’t put too much weight on the data like consumer confidence. Recovery requirese sustained confidence, and such confidenced is forged by strongereconomic fundamentals,” Harvey “The economic fundamentals –- capital spending, the cost of credit are still fundamentally troubling.” To see the complete survegy results, go to the official Web .