Investors are more optimistic about the global economy than CFOs

Investors are feeling fairly cheery about the global economy’s prospects in the back half of 2025. CFOs? Not so much.

That’s according to a survey by global CEO advisory firm Teneo. The company polled 132 public company CFOs and 200 institutional investors in May. More than three-quarters of investors (78%) said they thought the world economy would improve in the latter half of 2025. But only a little over half (53%) of US CFOs agreed. Outside the States, CFOs were even gloomier: Less than a third (29%) of non-US CFOs thought the global economy would pick up. (Though with all the uncertainty in the air, who’s to say which group will turn out to be correct?)

CFOs and investors also didn’t see eye-to-eye on why deals weren’t being made. A little over half (53%) of CFOs named market volatility as a barrier to M&A, compared with 38% of investors. Investors were far more likely to name tariffs as an M&A roadblock (41%) than CFOs (27%).

Both CFOs and investors did feel pretty positive that sources of operational funding would be available over the next six months. Firm majorities of both groups felt optimistic about access to debt markets and capital markets; that private equity would have a positive impact; and that debt would be affordable.

UK, hun? The US-UK trade deal looks a lot different depending on which side of the pond you’re on. Only 17% of UK CFOs foresaw positive outcomes from the deal, the Teneo survey found, versus nearly two-thirds (60%) of American CFOs.