Indian CEOs more upbeat about company than country’s growth: KPMG survey

CNBC-TV18
09-Jul-2019

Around 94 percent of Indian CEOs are more confident compared to 91 percent last year about their company’s growth prospects rather than the economy, according to a survey conducted by KPMG.

The survey of 125 CEOs spanning across 11 sectors was conducted between January and February of this year and the majority of the CEOs surveyed have an experience of 4 to 9 years at the job.

In terms of key risks to growth, 23 percent CEOs have identified climate change as the biggest threat to growth, while 17 percent believe a ‘return to territorialism’ and ‘disruptive technology’ as the key risks.

About 38 percent are worried about the trade war between the US and China, 38 percent fear the repercussions of Britain leaving the European Union (EU) and 24 percent fear the rise of political parties with protectionist policies.

Arun Kumar, chairman and CEO of KPMG India said, “Indian companies felt the same way as global companies. There is very little difference in the way Indian CEOs saw these risks and global CEOs did.””When you look at climate change and look at it over a fairly long period of time, there are studies that show climate change and global warming can cause an adverse impact on GDP. The World Bank thinks that India’s GDP could be affected by 2.8 points by adverse climate change and then we have had floods and cyclones and so forth. So there is an increase in sensitivity to what climate change can do,” he added.

Source