S’pore CFOs cautious on economic outlook: survey

Singapore chief financial officers are slightly more subdued in their outlook for the domestic economy than their counterparts in Asia-Pacific, a survey showed.

About 40 per cent of CFOs based locally said they expect the city-state to post flat economic growth this year, according to the inaugural 2012 CFO Outlook Asia survey.

Nearly a third believed the economy would expand further versus nearly a quarter who thought it would contract.

Chua Hak Bin, head of emerging Asia economics research at Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML), said the survey showed Singapore's results were more in line with a cautious outlook.

Japan CFOs were the gloomiest while India peers were the most confident.

The survey conducted in the fourth quarter of last year drew the views of 465 CFOs of large companies across the three countries as well as Australia, China, Hong Kong, and South Korea.

On how they would rate the sensitivity of economic growth of their base country, the corporate purse-string holders in Singapore rated the economy as the second-most sensitive next to Japan.

Nearly nine out of 10 also cited the potential of a real estate asset bubble in the Southeast Asian country as a big concern.

Across the seven markets, the greatest concern among CFOs were global concerns such as the European debt crisis, U.S. budget deficit and ceiling and an economic slowdown in China.

"While global macro issues such as oil prices and potential economic slowdown temper the environment, CFOs remain universally upbeat on commercial opportunities in Asia," said Percy Batliwalla, BAML's head of treasury sales for Asia-Pacific.