Survey Points To Surge In Spending From Big Business

A recent survey by Deloitte, the UK CFO Survey Q2 2021, shows that chief financial offers at some of the biggest businesses in the UK are looking to increase their capital expenditure over the coming months. And over three quarters of the CFO`s in the survey said that they expected to hire more staff through the coming 12 months.

Positive News For The Year Ahead

This is all very positive news for the year ahead and could be a sign that the economic recovery after the pandemic could move at quite a pace, leading to more jobs being created.

The survey also found that around 40% of the CFO`s involved said that their company was looking to expand into new markets as they searched out for new products and new services to increase their output and range. Growth via acquisition was another area that many companies were making a priority as they moved forward.

There were also claims by a high percentage of the CFO`s that demand for their products or services had already reached pre-pandemic levels, which is an astonishing set of circumstances given what we have been through over the last 12 months or so.

Years Of Normal Growth Compressed Into A Few Months

Speaking about the survey, Ian Stewart, chief economist at Deloitte, is quoted as saying in an article on the Scotsman website:

“With the economy reopening, CFOs’ perceptions of external uncertainty have dropped below the average of the last five years, and businesses have tacked away from the defensive strategies that helped them through the downturn.”

`He also said it is likely that there will be “years of normal growth compressed into just a few months”, adding: “Indeed, eight in ten CFOs believe that productivity will run higher in the wake of the pandemic. That offers the hope of a more comprehensive recovery than after the global financial crisis.”

Additionally, while Brexit dropped down the risk list, the pandemic remains “by a slim margin” the biggest concern for CFOs, with rising inflation and climate change also in the top three.`

Uncertainty Can Still Be A Stumbling Block

All the above is not to say that we are completely out of the woods yet and everything in the garden is rosy. There are still many businesses of all sizes struggling to stay afloat and the uncertainty over how Brexit is going to pan out, along with the fears over another possible Covid-19 wave emanating from another strain of the virus, is not helping them to recover. But this flow of positivity from many of these large businesses is definitely a breath of fresh air.