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Optimism reigns for 2019

January 3, 2019 by

Jittery stock markets, potential escalations of trade wars, uncertainty about Brexit, rate rises: the economic news of December 2018 might not all be good, but that didn’t move Members of European Leadership Platform. They strongly believe that 2019 will be a good year, a survey amongst ELP Members demonstrated. 85.1 Per cent is optimistic about the business prospects for 2019 and only 14.9 per cent is pessimistic. The additional comments show that ELP Members are optimists by nature: “There is no point in being pessimistic, that’s a waste of time. If it turns out to be less rosy than we would like, we’ll deal with it then.” Or: “Take charge and you can always be a driver for positive change”. One of the respondents points at the progress in society: “Underneath the daily turmoil of politics and emotions, more serious problems are being tackled more effectively than we have seen in a long time (climate change, digitax, privacy, Brexit, Hungary, refugees, etc.). We also have fewer blind spots, excessive greed and systemic vulnerabilities than ten years ago.” Another adds that there is reason for optimism ” if you keep learning & changing”.
The optimism also shows from what respondents see as the most important factors that impact their business in 2019. They were asked to select a maximum of three sources of impact, of which economic growth and innovation ranked the highest with 40.5 and 36.5 per cent respectively. More worrying sources of impact such as a tight labor market (33.8%) and Brexit (28.4%) scored significantly lower.