CFOs Are Optimistic About Global Growth

The number crunchers like what they're crunching. Five years after the global financial crisis, chief financial officers from around the globe see economic growth improving over the next six months and are looking to expand their companies' workforce, according to a new survey by CNBC.

CNBC asked 33 chief financial officers (CFO) from Europe and Asia who make up the CNBC CFO council what their assessment was of global economic growth.

The majority of respondents, 65%, see the global economy modestly improving over the next six months, with 4% seeing it “strongly improving” over the same period. When asked to rank the health of certain business conditions, most CFOs said stock market valuations were “modestly high” and 48% said credit availability was high.

The survey, conducted between October 21 and 23, includes CFOs from companies such as Unilever and Lenovo. It also showed that employment figures could be about to get a boost. Over half of respondents said that they were looking to hire new workers over the next six months, compared with just 4% saying they planned to lay off staff, and 40% predicting no change.

Aside from fears of slowing growth, another macroeconomic issue that CFOs feared was the threat of cyber attacks. Out of ten possible fears for companies, cyber attacks received the greatest amount of “highly worried” responses.