Finance executives in India are overwhelmingly optimistic about the prospects for economic expansion in the country in the coming year than their global counterpart, says a survey.As per the fourth annual American Express/CFO Research Global Business and Spending Monitor, 87 per cent of CFOs in India are expecting economic expansion in the country in the next year, while 75 per cent of global executives expect economic expansion in the same period.
Moreover, even higher proportions, 93 per cent Indians expect to see modest or substantial top-line growth at their companies during the same period.
At the country level expansion, India is followed by Mexico where 84 per cent of CFOs saw a modest to substantial economic growth in the next one year, Germany (83 per cent), Singapore (81 per cent) and the US (74 per cent).
Interestingly, only three per cent of Indian CFOs expect modest or no economic contraction, the lowest among all the countries surveyed, it revealed.
While 75 per cent of Indian CFOs expect economic growth to accelerate during the second or third quarter of 2011, a total of 83
per cent expect growth to speed up by the end of the year.
The survey also noted that over the next one year, 62 per cent of the Indian CFOs plan to focus on their top line and the remaining 38 per cent said they would focus on profitability growth.
In contrast, at the global level CFOs were divided equally on the growth of top-line and of profitability, the survey conducted among 665 financial executives from Australia, the US, Asia, Europe, Canada, and Latin America noted.
"Indian companies expect to invest more than they did last year on developing new products and services as well as increasing their investments in mergers and acquisitions.
"A high percentage of India-based respondents also say they will focus on investing in revenue drivers such as operations and production (64 per cent), sales (62 per cent) and customer service (59 per cent)," the survey said.
Besides, finance executives in India are concerned about the talent crunch.
