CFO optimism level at an all time low level: Survey

NEW DELHI: Optimism level of India's senior finance executives in the overall financial and macro-economic conditions for the next three months has touched all-time low level amid domestic and global woes, said survey.

According to global research firm D&B's India CFO survey, the optimism regarding the overall macroeconomic condition for the third quarter of this year touched an all time low.

The Composite CFO Optimism Index for Q3 2013 declined by 4.1 per cent on a year-on-year basis and by 3.4 per cent on a quarter-on-quarter basis.

"The CFOs especially in the services sector are highly uncertain about how the developments in the domestic and global economy pans out in the forthcoming quarter," Dun and Bradstreet India Director-Risk Management Solution Arvind Raghav said.

The recent sharp depreciation in rupee, measures taken to drain the excess liquidity in the banking system, expectations regarding rise in interest rates coupled with the rising global crude oil prices have severely dented the optimism level among the CFOs.

Perception regarding the financial risk not only for the company's balance sheet but also for the corporate sector as a whole has thus increased as revealed by the survey.

The current domestic economic scenario calls for more strategic and proactive measures by the government rather than re-active policies to counter the sudden unexpected sharp slowdown in growth, Raghav said.

Around 87 per cent of the surveyed CFOs revealed that they expect the level of financial risk for the corporate sector as a whole to increase or remain the same as compared to the previous year quarter.

The survey further noted that around 39 per cent of the CFOs consider risk management tools to be their priority during the following six months as compared to 30 per cent in the previous quarter.