Brexit Britain is resilient and remains one of the world’s most important investment destinations, a global poll of business leaders has found.
The PwC survey showed the UK is the most strategically important country for US chief executives and is also becoming an increasingly key location for Chinese firms.
The audit giant’s findings, published at the World Economic Forum in Davos, undermine repeated claims that Britain’s departure from the European Union has diminished its place in the world.
The UK remains an important strategic destination for US and Chinese chief executives
And they come as a separate poll of company chief economists, published by the organisers of the summit, highlighted the ‘precarious nature of the current economic environment’ for the world and an outlook ‘fraught with uncertainty’.
The poll found that 56 per cent expect the global economy to weaken this year as firms grapple with tough borrowing conditions, global tensions and the rise of AI.
The PwC survey, however, follows official figures last week showing a bounce-back in GDP in November, allaying fears of a recession.
PwC’s UK boss Kevin Ellis said they showed how attractive Britain remains around the world even as some in the UK take a ‘hair-shirted’ negative view of their own country.
The survey of 4,702 chief executives in 105 countries, including 135 in the UK, revealed Britain remained the number one country for chief executives from the US – the world’s biggest economy – who are looking to invest.
And it has shot up the rankings for bosses in China, the world’s second biggest economy – from 16th to sixth – possibly because of Britain’s embrace of cutting edge technology such as AI.
However, it has slipped back in the rankings when looking at all global chief executives – falling to fourth behind Germany after the two countries were joint third last year.
The US and China are the two most important investment destinations for global chief executives. Ellis said: ‘The UK’s standing on the world stage has proved pretty resilient, particularly among the biggest powers and global investors. There’s no doubt it remains an attractive place to live, work and invest. But we can’t be complacent. As a country, we’re probably more hair-shirted about ourselves than the rest of the world is about us.
You do feel it when you travel around the world, we are very attractive and everyone’s very interested in us.’
The PwC survey also revealed that UK chief executives are much more bullish than bosses from other countries about the world economy, with 61 per cent of British bosses expecting it to improve compared with 38 per cent globally.
UK chief executives were less confident about their own country, however, with only 39 per cent expecting it to improve. However, that was sharply up on last year when – in the shadow of Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-Budget in September 2022 – just 9 per cent voiced optimism.
And the figures also reveal that 48 per cent of British bosses plan to increase their workforce by 5 per cent or more this year, well ahead of French, German and US business leaders.
Germany ‘in crisis mode’
Germany faces a two-year recession while the outlook for the global economy is ‘precarious’, analysts have warned.
Official figures yesterday showed the German economy shrank by 0.3 per cent in 2023 as high energy prices and weak foreign demand took their toll.
That made it the worst performing nation in the G7.
Carsten Brzeski, global head of macro at banking group ING, said the German economy is ‘in permanent crisis mode’ and warned it is likely to shrink again this year. With the economy just 0.7 per cent bigger than it was in 2019 before Covid-19 struck, Commerzbank’s Joerg Kraemer said: ‘It is worrying that the German economy has hardly grown at all since the outbreak of coronavirus.’
