THE optimism level among chief financial officers (CFOs) about the country’s financial and macro-economic conditions for the July-September quarter of this year remained unchanged on a year-on-year basis owing to weak liquidity and macro-economic conditions, says a survey. The Dun & Bradstreet Composite CFO Optimism Index remained unchanged, increased only by 0.6 per cent, on a year-on-year (YoY) basis, to 106.0 during Q3 (July-September) 2019.

 

“Factors which pulled down the optimism levels of the chief financial officers (CFOs) were weak liquidity, need for funds, domestic and global macro-economic conditions and scenario for mergers and acquisitions,” said Manish Sinha, Managing Director of India, Dun & Bradstreet. According to the survey, optimism for macroeconomic scenario declined by 12.1 per cent YoY. Just 44 per cent of CFOs have indicated domestic macro-economic scenario to be favourable -- lowest in 23 quarters. Besides, only 37 per cent of CFOs in the services sector have indicated global macroeconomic scenario to be favourable in Q3 2019 – lowest in 12 quarters. The survey further noted that 15 per cent of CFOs expect an increase in availability of funds in the market - lowest since April-June quarter of 2012.