The quarterly Deloitte CFO Survey has been gauging sentiment and balance-sheet strategies among the UK’s largest businesses since 2007.

Key findings

• CFOs rank the UK as the joint top location for investment, alongside India
• Risk appetite among finance leaders has increased, with 17% believing now is a good time to take greater risk onto their balance sheets
• UK corporates are moving away from defensive strategies for the first time in a year
• Geopolitics continues to be rated as the top risk to business by finance leaders
• CFOs now expect inflation to decline to 2.9% by the middle of next year and expect the Bank of England to lower its base rate to 3.75% over the next 12 months, down from its current rate of 4.25%

“These results reveal a shift in sentiment with the UK now viewed as a leading global investment destination. This renewed confidence, coupled with a rise in risk appetite, is welcome and underscores the considerable investment potential the UK offers.“

- Richard Houston, Senior Partner and Chief Executive
 

“Despite conflict in the Middle East and volatility in oil prices levels of concern about geopolitical risk fell slightly in the second quarter. This may reflect an easing of concerns around trade in the light of the UK-US trade deal announced in early May.”

- Ian Stewart, Chief Economist

Download the report
 

Download this quarter’s report here.

Explore the data
 

Download the PDF to access all the historical data series from the Deloitte CFO Survey. Data from the CFO Survey is also hosted on Thomson Reuters Datastream, Bloomberg, Factset and Macrobond. Please feel free to use any of the data series in your documents or presentations.

Email Tom Simmons to receive a copy of our spreadsheet containing our CFO Survey data.