Brexit Britain is resilient and stays one of many world’s most vital funding locations, a world ballot of enterprise leaders has discovered.
The PwC survey confirmed the UK is essentially the most strategically vital nation for US chief executives and can be changing into an more and more key location for Chinese companies.
The audit big’s findings, printed on the World Economic Forum in Davos, undermine repeated claims that Britain’s departure from the European Union has diminished its place on the planet.
The UK stays an vital strategic vacation spot for US and Chinese chief executives
And they arrive as a separate ballot of firm chief economists, printed by the organisers of the summit, highlighted the ‘precarious nature of the present financial atmosphere’ for the world and an outlook ‘fraught with uncertainty’.
The ballot discovered that 56 per cent anticipate the worldwide financial system to weaken this yr as companies grapple with robust borrowing situations, international tensions and the rise of AI.
The PwC survey, nevertheless, follows official figures final week displaying a bounce-back in GDP in November, allaying fears of a recession.
PwC’s UK boss Kevin Ellis stated they confirmed how engaging Britain stays world wide whilst some within the UK take a ‘hair-shirted’ unfavorable view of their very own nation.
The survey of 4,702 chief executives in 105 international locations, together with 135 within the UK, revealed Britain remained the primary nation for chief executives from the US – the world’s greatest financial system – who need to make investments.
And it has shot up the rankings for bosses in China, the world’s second greatest financial system – from sixteenth to sixth – presumably due to Britain’s embrace of leading edge know-how corresponding to AI.
However, it has slipped again within the rankings when taking a look at all international chief executives – falling to fourth behind Germany after the 2 international locations had been joint third final yr.
The US and China are the 2 most vital funding locations for international chief executives. Ellis stated: ‘The UK’s standing on the world stage has proved fairly resilient, significantly among the many greatest powers and international traders. There’s little question it stays a sexy place to dwell, work and make investments. But we won’t be complacent. As a rustic, we’re in all probability extra hair-shirted about ourselves than the remainder of the world is about us.
You do really feel it whenever you journey world wide, we’re very engaging and everybody’s very concerned about us.’
The PwC survey additionally revealed that UK chief executives are way more bullish than bosses from different international locations in regards to the world financial system, with 61 per cent of British bosses anticipating it to enhance in contrast with 38 per cent globally.
UK chief executives had been much less assured about their very own nation, nevertheless, with solely 39 per cent anticipating it to enhance. However, that was sharply up on final yr when – within the shadow of Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-Budget in September 2022 – simply 9 per cent voiced optimism.
And the figures additionally reveal that 48 per cent of British bosses plan to extend their workforce by 5 per cent or extra this yr, effectively forward of French, German and US enterprise leaders.
Germany ‘in disaster mode’
Germany faces a two-year recession whereas the outlook for the worldwide financial system is ‘precarious’, analysts have warned.
Official figures yesterday confirmed the German financial system shrank by 0.3 per cent in 2023 as excessive vitality costs and weak international demand took their toll.
That made it the worst performing nation within the G7.
Carsten Brzeski, international head of macro at banking group ING, stated the German financial system is ‘in everlasting disaster mode’ and warned it’s prone to shrink once more this yr. With the financial system simply 0.7 per cent greater than it was in 2019 earlier than Covid-19 struck, Commerzbank’s Joerg Kraemer stated: ‘It is worrying that the German financial system has hardly grown in any respect because the outbreak of coronavirus.’