McKinsey global survey results: executives downbeat about economy

There’s growing concern about the economy among executives polled for a report from McKinsey & Company, an international consulting firm based in New York City.

According to the report, “Economic Conditions Snapshot, December 2018: McKinsey Global Survey,”* as executives reflect on 2018, their views on current economic conditions are more downbeat than they have been all year, both domestically and globally. And while pockets of optimism for the economy’s prospects are evident in certain geographies, such as India and Latin America, respondents to McKinsey’s latest survey on executive sentiment express overall cautious expectations for the future.

The number of survey participants predicting conditions will decline in their home economies and the world economy is the highest it has been in years, and respondents in developed Asia report an especially wary outlook on their home countries and their own companies. As they have throughout 2018, executives worldwide continue to cite policy- and politics-related issues as top threats to economic growth.

North American respondents report the largest shifts toward negative country-level sentiment since September. More than one-third of those in North America say their countries’ economies are worse than six months ago, up from 14 percent who said so in the previous survey (September 2018).

As has been the case all year, respondents tend to see risks related to policy and politics as the most pressing threats to economic growth, both globally and domestically.

For the fourth survey in a row, changes in trade policy are the most commonly cited risk to global economic growth.

*The online survey was in the field from Dec. 3 to 7 and garnered responses from 1,037 participants, representing the full range of global regions, industries, company sizes, functional specialties, and tenures. To adjust for differences in response rates, the data are weighted by the contribution of each respondent’s nation to global GDP.

Click here to read the full report.