LAHORE – During the past few months, a reverse graph was noticed in global economic recovery. According to a worldwide Global Economic Conditions survey by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), the fourth quarter of 2010 showed that unlike previous quarter (28 percent as opposed to 14 percent) twice the number of accountants believe global recovery is slipping away.
Faith in recovery has been at its lowest level during the last 18 months. Less than a third of respondents (32 percent) believe that conditions are improving whereas during the previous quarter nearly half (47 percent) were optimistic about economic prospects.
Consequently business confidence, as recorded by the survey of more than 600 professional accountants from around the world, has gone into negative territory for the first time since the third quarter of 2009. The share of respondents reporting no change in their confidence levels (37%, down from 42%) has fallen below that of respondents who had lost confidence in their organisations (38 percent, up from 28 percent).
ACCA Senior Policy Adviser Manos Schizas said, “The issue for finance professionals is the question of whether the falling economy has taken a pause for breath or is about to take a downturn. The findings of this survey suggest that finance professionals think that downturn is now more likely scenario.” SME appears to be most resilient sector followed by private, non-financial sector; there has been a significant drop in confidence of accountants working in large financial services companies, though.
This may be a response to economic crises in some European countries. Finally, confidence levels amongst public sector accountants were lower with an accelerated loss of confidence in this sector. The survey has also shown that accountants see governments having no control over new downturn. 38 percent of respondents rate government responses to current economic conditions as negative whereas 26 percent rate them positive.
