Global economic conditions survey report: Q4, 2010

Fieldwork for this latest edition of the survey was carried out between 22 November and 20 December 2010 and attracted 608 responses from professional accountants around the world. Our general findings point to a reversal in the momentum of the recovery, with accountants’ confidence in the recovery and the prospects of their own organisations falling back to the lowest levels in some time, possibly the last year and a half; deterioration in key fundamentals such as business incomes and insolvencies; continued resilience among small businesses but a strong reversal of fortunes for big financials and even more stress in the public sector; and continued weakness in investment as the supply of finance and government support recede.