CFO Quarterly Outlook Report: January 2011

©January 2011, 19 pages

Chief Financial Officers in the U.S. lead CFOs in Europe in optimism, access to credit and plans for hiring new workers, according to the most recent survey of CFOs conducted by Financial Executives International (FEI) and Baruch College’s Zicklin School of Business. For the first time in the survey’s history, CFOs in Italy and France were also polled this quarter for a comparison of trends between the U.S. and Europe. Despite their differences, U.S. and European CFOs share some of the same business challenges and economic worries as they kick off 2011. Executives on both sides of the globe are seeing opportunities for their local economies and businesses in 2011 following a difficult few years, with similar plans for capital expenditure. According to the survey, U.S. CFOs are continuing to show increased confidence, reflecting one of the largest increases in the survey’s history. The Q4 CFO Optimism Index for the U.S. economy rose more than ten points (from 55.20 to 65.50) and the outlook for CFOs’ own companies’ also increased nearly four points (69.1 in Q3 to 73 this quarter). Interestingly, U.S. CFOs demonstrated a higher level of confidence in their companies’ prospects for financial success than their European counterparts by more than seven points (65.60). This quarter, the CFO Outlook Survey interviewed 336 corporate CFOs from the United States, 160 corporate CFOs from Italy and 50 corporate CFOs from France electronically from January 10-18. CFOs from both public and private companies and from a broad range of industries, revenues and geographic areas, including some off-shore companies, are represented. The U.S. survey respondents are members of Financial Executives International; France survey respondents are members of Association Nationale Des Directeurs Financiers Et Du Controle De Gestion (DFCG) and Italy survey respondents are members of Associazione Nazionale Direttori Amministrativi E Finanziari (ANDAF).