World business leaders less confident of economic prospects

DAVOS, SWITZERLAND, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- World business leaders appeared less confident of the economic prospects of their companies on Wednesday when they gathered here to kick off their annual World Economic Forum.

According to a global survey conducted by the New York-based consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, confidence among leaders of the world's top companies has fallen for the first time in five years, with half of them "very confident" about revenue growth over the next 12 months, down from 52 percent in the previous year.

"The credit crunch and the slowdown in the Western economies have created a clear split in the confidence levels of CEOs around the world," said Samuel A. DiPiazza, global CEO of PricewaterhouseCoopers.

"The possibility that the downturn could worsen into recession looms large for CEOs in established economies like the U.S. and Western Europe," he said.

The survey, which was based on 1,150 interviews with CEOs in 50countries from October to December, showed a separated world, where the confidence drop was more obvious in the United States and Western Europe, but in contrast CEOs in the rising economies of Asia, Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe were getting more optimistic.

The survey found only 35 percent of the CEOs in North America were " very confident" about growth, down from 54 percent last year. In Western Europe, 44 percent of top executives were "very confident," down from 52 percent in the previous year.

Fifty-six percent of the executives in the Asia Pacific region were "very confident" of growth versus 49 percent a year ago. The situation was similar in Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe, where confidence also improved slightly from a year ago.

Among those emerging economies, China and India posted high confidence, with 73 percent and 90 percent of the CEOs "very confident" about next year's growth.