Business Confidence Survey 2023

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The 20th edition of the annual survey shows that there has been a significant deterioration of business sentiment.

Faced with growing risks and a more volatile operating environment, European companies have started reviewing their investment and operational strategies, and ensuring their supply chains are fit for more uncertain conditions.

Decoupling of HQ and China operations has increased primarily to manage risk, with nearly three quarters of respondents having localised IT and data storage infrastructure. Significant localisation of company staff has also taken place over the last half decade, with 16% reporting their China operations no longer employ any foreign nationals.

These developments come at a considerable cost to companies and to China. The need to create divergent systems for China and the rest of the world means that the overall efficiency brought by global economies of scale is lost; and the reduction of foreign nationals is resulting in reduced transfer of knowhow and best practices, communication difficulties, deferred investment plans, and even China operations being closed.

Read the press release in full.

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