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The results of the latest Global Economic Conditions Survey suggest that finance professionals are ready to call the bottom of the global economic downturn and believe that recovery should be possible within the next 18 months.
 

Finance professionals, however, also point to the significant downside risks attached to such forecasts. Particularly relevant are the predictions of public sector accountants, who have consistently forecast a longer downturn than other ACCA members.
 

With regard to trading conditions, the results for the second quarter of 2009 are remarkably similar to those of the previous survey. Apart from interest rate fluctuations, which have become less severe in the second quarter, most negative business impacts have receded only marginally. Some indicators have, in fact, deteriorated slightly: of these the incidence of late payment is probably the most troubling.
 

Finance professionals are still citing cost-cutting as the most likely area of opportunity, followed by closer relationships along the value chain and the exploration of new markets. Significantly, marginally fewer businesses appear to be exploiting changes in customer behaviour and preferences, even though such opportunities were closely correlated with rising business confidence in the first quarter of 2009.

The pace of redundancies has picked up in finance departments around the world, with compulsory redundancies increasing in frequency since early 2009 even though voluntary ones did not. More organisations are also reported to have sought savings by reducing the financial training on offer.
 

Encouragingly, finance professionals believe that redundancies and training cuts are now much closer to their peak utilisation than any other cost-cutting measure. Least utilised in this regard is the option of outsourcing, which could yet resurface in the near future.
 

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