66% CEOs in India expect recession in next 12 months: KPMG

Sixty-six per cent CEOs in India expect a recession next year but 58 per cent of them believe that the economic downturn will be mild and short, according to a report by KPMG. The top pressing concerns faced by CEOs in India today are pandemic fatigue, economic factors like the threat of rising interest rates, inflation, anticipated recession and reputational risk, KPMG said in its 2022 India CEO Outlook.

As per the report, 66 per cent CEOs in India compared to 86 per cent globally anticipate a recession over the next 12 months. Nearly 90 per cent of the business leaders in India predict 10 per cent hit on company earnings while 62 per cent CEOs believe that a recession will upend anticipated growth compared to 73 per cent globally.

The study asked more than 125 CEOs in India about their strategies and outlook, and found that senior executives in India as well as globally also feel markedly more confident about the resilience of the global economy over the next six months (82 per cent CEOs in India compared to 73 percent CEOs globally) than they did in February 2022 (40 percent CEOs in India compared 60 per cent CEOs globally), when KPMG surveyed 500 CEOs for its CEO Outlook Pulse survey.

Yezdi Nagporewalla, CEO, KPMG in India, said that be it the business ecosystem, supply chain or issues pertaining to talent, the magnitude of these challenges has altered dramatically and what matters is how agile business leaders are to respond. "CEOs in India surveyed appear confident in their organisation’s resilience, they also seem to have prepared themselves to make the most of the current environment, brought on by the promise of technology, talent and ESG," he said.

Global agencies like IMF and World Bank have already warned of a recession in some countries in Europe. In its latest report, the IMF has predicted a slowdown in major economies like US and China, and a recession next year in Germany and Italy.

Also read: Exclusive: Coursera CEO wades into moonlighting debate, advises employees to focus on one job

Also read: Can IndiGo's new CEO keep India's leading airline ahead of an increasingly competitive pack of rivals?