Finance bosses optimistic about recovery

FINANCE bosses at UK firms are optimistic about an upturn in the economy next year but most expect it will be a long and sluggish recovery.

The Deloitte quarterly survey of chief financial officers found that 73% expect the UK economy to recover in 2010, however 23% believe the UK will not return to growth until 2011.

Almost 60% do not expect any acceleration in demand for their own companies’ products and services for at least another 12 months, while 85% believe unemployment will rise for at least a year into the recovery.

Richard Bell, head of transaction services, UK regions, at Deloitte, said the findings are hardly a return to ‘business as usual’.

He said: “It seems that optimism is returning, but nobody is getting carried away. While chief financial officers may believe the end of the recession is in sight, they are of the opinion that the business environment will remain very difficult during the first year of any recovery.

“They believe that conditions for UK corporates will remain tough even as the economy recovers. It will be a very different environment to the last years of the boom – chief financial officers don’t see a return to the robust growth of late 2006 and early 2007.”