China Growth and European Deflation Two Biggest Threats

December 8, 2014 Share Print 0

With an uneasiness looming over the global economy as the year draws to a close, chief financial officers (CFOs) have told CNBC that softer growth in China and the threat of deflation in the euro zone are the two biggest issues their firms are facing.

Fifty-one CFOs from Europe and Asia – who make up the CNBC CFO Global Council – were asked what the major risks that their firms are currently up against. Coming ahead of the pack by a clear margin was the threat of falling growth in China. It came top of the list for Asian CFOs and was the third biggest risk for their European counterparts. When asked which of the year’s geopolitical or economic risks had the greatest impact on their businesses, 57 percent pointed at the warning signs coming from, the world’s second largest economy.

The results underline how important China is for global confidence as the country shifts from its traditional role as the world’s factory floor to becoming a consumer-led economy. The Asian powerhouse, which has been the world’s biggest consumer of raw materials, is now on course to post its slowest growth in nearly a quarter of a century. It grew 7.3 percent year-on-year during the July-September period, its slowest pace in more than five years, jeopardizing Beijing’s 7.5 percent target for 2014.

via CNBC

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Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse

Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.