Jun 23, 2023
Business leaders are feeling gloomy right now.
A whopping 93% of CEOs surveyed in The Conference Board’s Measure of CEO Confidence Q2 2023 report said they were preparing for a recession within the next 12 to 18 months. About 87% believe it will be brief and shallow, while 6% expect the impending recession to cut deep.
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“CEO confidence ticked down slightly in Q2 and remains firmly in negative territory,” Dana M. Peterson, Chief Economist of The Conference Board, said in a press release.
The survey revealed that CEO confidence dropped to a score of 42, which is below the 50 threshold, indicating business leaders are more pessimistic than optimistic about the economic outlook.
Inflation, rising rates, stagnant wages and the ongoing banking crisis may all be culminating in this economic slowdown. Here’s how business leaders are preparing for the upcoming recession and how you can too.
Focus on liquidity
Spooked by the ongoing banking crisis, business leaders were actively reviewing the liquidity of all stakeholders. According to the The Conference Board survey, 62% of CEOs were reviewing their banking relationships
“Large numbers are also reviewing their firms’ risk management practices and liquidity adequacy—as well as those of customers and suppliers,” said Roger W. Ferguson, Jr., Vice Chairman of The Business Council and Trustee of The Conference Board.
Simply put, some business leaders are worried that their counter-parties might run out of funds in the months ahead and are shoring up their capital reserves in preparation.
Ordinary savers and investors should probably do the same. Boosting cash reserves and spreading it out across government treasuries, corporate bonds and different savings accounts could be the best way to mitigate the risk of an economic crisis.
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Cut back on expenses
Less than a third (27%) of CEOs surveyed said they expect to increase their capital budgets in the coming year.
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Managing expenses is a key way to protect one’s finances from an economic crisis. Dozens of companies have already taken the extreme measure of laying off thousands of workers this year.
Regular savers can exercise belt tightening on a small scale.
Consider cutting back on vacations, big-ticket purchases and unnecessary expenses.
Seek out opportunities
All the doom and gloom doesn’t necessarily mean you should hide your valuables under a mattress. Instead, these conditions could be favorable for contrarian investors.
Warren Buffett certainly seems to be on the offensive. In the first quarter of this year, the legendary investor boosted his stake in Apple, Occidental Petroleum and a range of other stocks.
“Bad news is an investor’s best friend,” Buffet famously noted in a 2008 op-ed for the New York Times.
Lower valuations could be a good opportunity to invest some excess cash. For example, you could consider growth opportunities in the emerging field of artificial intelligence, income opportunities in the bond market or dividend opportunities in the energy sector.
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Vishesh Raisinghani is a financial journalist covering personal finance, investing and the global economy. He's also the founder of Sharpe Ascension Inc., a content marketing agency focused on investment firms. His work has appeared in Moneywise, Yahoo Finance!, Motley Fool, Seeking Alpha, Mergers & Acquisitions Magazine and Piggybank.
