Data & Results
Dec. 21, 2022
U.S. financial executives are generally pessimistic about next year’s economy, saying they expect price growth to subside some in 2023 but still remain high. They also report that wages at their firms have not kept pace with inflation.
Key Results Summary
| CFO Optimism | Q4 2022 | Q3 2022 |
|---|---|---|
| Optimism about own company (0 to 100) | 67.2 | 68.0 |
| Optimism about the U.S. economy (0 to 100) | 53.4 | 53.1 |
| Note: Mean optimism values are unweighted. | ||
| CFOs' Growth Expectations for Their Own Firms, by Response Quarter | Q4 2022 | Q3 2022 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean (and Median) Expected Year-Over-Year Percentage Change for Calendar Years | 2022 | 2023 | 2022 | 2023 |
| Revenue | 8.8% (8.0%) | 4.7% (5.0%) | 9.1% (7.0%) | 7.4% (6.0%) |
| Price | 8.6% (5.0%) | 5.2% (4.0%) | 7.4% (5.0%) | 5.1% (4.0%) |
| Unit Cost | 9.2% (5.0%) | 6.7% (5.0%) | 8.9% (6.0%) | 6.6% (5.0%) |
| Employment (full-time) | 8.6% (3.7%) | 3.3% (2.5%) | 8.4% (2.5%) | 3.5% (2.4%) |
| Wage Bill | 8.7% (6.0%) | 6.9% (5.0%) | 8.5% (6.0%) | 6.8% (5.0%) |
| Non-wage Compensation | - | - | 7.5% (5.0%) | 7.8% (6.0%) |
| Note: Revenue, Price, and Unit Cost are weighted by sales revenue. Employment, Wage Bill, and Non-wage Compensation are weighted by employment. These data are also winsorized at 2.5% and 97.5% to remove the potential influence of extreme values. As of Q4 2022, questions on non-wage compensation were discontinued. | ||||
| CFOs' Expectations for Real GDP Growth Over Next Four Quarters, by Response Quarter | Q4 2022 | Q3 2022 |
|---|---|---|
| Weighted Mean | 0.7% | 0.9% |
| Weighted Median | 0.7% | 0.9% |
| Probability of Negative Growth | 31.3% | 30.3% |
| Note: Responses are weighted by sales revenue. | ||
Please refer to the full results for Q4 2022 and The CFO Survey Methodology for more information.
June 29, 2022
April 2020 and Prior
Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and CFO magazine previously conducted the Global Business Outlook by surveying CFOs of companies and subscribers of CFO magazine around the world each quarter. An archive of past surveys is available at cfosurvey.fuqua.duke.edu.
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