Hong Kong CFOs Balance Growth and Opportunity Under Modest Economic Outlook
According to the eighth annual American Express/CFO Research Global Business and Spending Monitor 2015, the vast majority of Hong Kong businesses have moderated expectations for economic growth this year. Despite this lack of general enthusiasm, local companies are still confident in their ability to spend and invest for growth, yet every dollar spent will face additional scrutiny.
Asia is still the main engine for growth with more than two thirds (69%) of companies said that this region is where they’re focusing for expansion and new business opportunities, but companies will be applying tighter spending controls to preserve profitability at the same time.
Sixty-six percent of business said they would be spending money to expand operations in new markets, and nearly 60% said they would need to invest just to remain competitive (59%) or protect their existing market share (58%) respectively.
About half of the respondents said they are willing to invest more than last year in activities to generate new sources of income such as sales and marketing (50%), new products and services (47%), improving production process efficiency (43%) and production and service delivery (43%).
565 senior finance executives were surveyed at companies with annual revenues of $500 million or more across a wide range of industries in the U.S., Europe, Canada, Latin America, Asia and Australia. The research program, which included an online survey and interviews with senior finance executives, was conducted in November- December 2014.
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