Deloitte is one of the biggest names in global accounting and auditing. It recently released the data from the survey carried out among CFOs in the third quarter of this year. The survey was conducted between the 1st and 15th of August and 112 CFOs from the United States, Mexico, and Canada participated in it.

CFOs Brace for Impact

Deloitte said its selection of CFOs represents large companies and that 84% of those had income exceeding $1 billion, and more than a quarter represent companies with over $10 billion in revenue. Deloitte said 46% of the CFOs in its survey think North America will be in a recession by the end of the year.   

The accounting firm said that CFOs are already taking steps that would prepare their various companies for the recession. Some of these steps involve cutting operational costs, controlling staff strength, and improving productivity.

Much more, some CFOs said they are doing an evaluation of their services and customers to see how they can make their companies resistant to the impact of the recession when it comes. Deloitte also said that about 39% of surveyed CFOs expect that North America will be in a stagflation phase in 2023.

The report said further that 15% of them, however, expressed an optimistic perspective. This segment of CFOs expects the economy to grow, but with low or moderate inflation in 2023.

Too Aggressive Push from the Feds 

As for the assessment of capital markets, 30% of the surveyed CFOs think the United States stock market is being overvalued. About 47% of them said the United States stocks are neither undervalued nor overvalued, and about 24% of them said the stocks are undervalued.

A lot of people have expressed their concerns that the Federal Reserve’s aggressive monetary policy position will drag the United States into a recession. The fear became heightened after the Federal Reserve Chairman’s address at the Jackson Hole conference. US Democrat Senator, Elizabeth Warren expressed her fears too, saying she is concerned that the Feds might tip the country into a recession.

Another survey carried out by the NABE was released last week. It revealed that 72% of the Economists who participated in it expect the US economy to enter a recession towards the middle of 2023. About 19% of them, however, think the US is in a recession already.

A different survey in August revealed 97% of executives in the US to be getting ready for a recession.