Advanced economies – including that of the United States – are projected to continue experiencing particularly low growth, with an overall expansion of only 1.3 percent expected for 2012. U.S. growth was projected to be 2.2 percent.
Olivier Blanchard, chief economist at the IMF, linked low growth and uncertainty in advanced economies to slowdowns in developing nations, for which growth prospects were also reduced.
What this means for U.S. businesses
The IMF’s assessment primarily acts to confirm what most professionals had already pieced together – the global economy is still struggling, meaning current gains are fragile and reversible.
Analysts asserted that either a flare-up of the eurozone crisis or a failure by U.S. lawmakers to address the looming “fiscal cliff” – a combination of pending tax increases and spending cuts – would cause the organization to further reduce its growth forecast.
The implication for U.S. businesses is that careful financial planning in the present will be crucial in order to enable companies to experience success going forward. Such planning depends on a mix of shrewdness and fiscal expertise at the highest levels of corporate leadership.
That’s why it is so important to ensure that candidates for CFO jobs and other critical positions are appropriately vetted before being hired. In addition to the direct costs of making a bad hiring decision at the C-level, there is also the disruption to the company’s long-term strategic planning.
Recruitment firms can help businesses ensure that they are reaching high-caliber candidates in every financial professional search.
