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Ghosts and goblins aren’t the only things spooking the C-suite this fall. Recession fears, much like Jason and Freddy Krueger, just refuse to stay dead.
Three in five executives (61%) foresaw a recession in the next six months, according to a PwC pulse survey fielded in September. That was up from the 49% who anticipated a recession in June’s pulse survey.(It should be noted, though, that most of the survey responses came in before the Fed decided to lower interest rates.)
PwC posited that conflicting macroeconomic data, geopolitical tensions, and unease about the election might be driving the recession fears.
Risks aplenty: The 709 US executives who responded to the survey—including CFOs and finance and tax leaders—identified numerous issues as “moderate” or “serious” risks to their businesses, including margin pressures (70%), geopolitical tensions (68%), the macroeconomic climate (68%), and US regulations (67%). Cyber attacks topped the list, though, with 75% of respondents deeming them “moderate” (34%) or “serious” (41%) risks.
Election will pose a competitive threat—no matter who wins: Executives also held gloomy sentiments toward the election. Seven in 10 (71%) said trade and tax policies following the election would make the US less competitive, regardless of who’s elected president. And similar percentages saw the candidates’ economic policies as harmful to growth: Three-quarters (75%) said Trump’s proposed 10% universal tariff on imports would hinder growth, and three-quarters (75%) also said Harris’s proposed 28% US corporate tax rate would cause them to pull back on domestic investments.