Monetary policy overtakes inflation as CFOs’ top concern

Does it seem like everyone is worried about higher interest rates? Well, CFOs are. That’s according to the results of the CFO Survey that Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and the Federal Reserve Banks of Richmond and Atlanta released on September 23. It found that monetary policy was the top concern for CFOs in the third quarter, even before the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates on September 16. The study of CFO sentiment and plans was fielded from August 17 to September 4.

Of 517 financial executives who responded to the survey, 9.5% picked monetary policy as their firm’s biggest worry. Inflation, the top concern for CFOs in Q2, came in second, with (8.6%).

CFOs’ optimism about the US economy in the third quarter averaged 60.3 on a scale from zero to 100. That was a slight drop from the 60.6 recorded in Q2. Since the onset of Covid in March 2020, the high point for CFOs’ economic optimism was 69 in June 2021, and the low point was 50.5 in June 2022.

When CFOs were asked about their own company, the optimism index declined slightly, from 70.7 in the second quarter to 69.7.

“Overall, CFOs remain optimistic about the US economy and their own company’s prospects,” Sonya Ravindranath Waddell, VP and economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, said in a statement. “Rising optimism among large firms is accompanied by strong expectations for revenue and employment growth in 2026 and 2027.”

Over half (51.1%) of CFOs said their company had increased spending over the prior three months, not including capex. That was up slightly from 50.4% in Q2. Two in five (43.3%) said spending “increased somewhat” and 7.8% said spending “increased significantly.” Over a quarter (28.7%) said there was no change in spending, while 20.2% indicated spending had dropped.

“Where there are challenges [in the economy], they are most pronounced for small or financially constrained firms,” Waddell said.

A majority (81.2%) of respondents said that accessing financing or the cost of financing didn’t stop them from investing or spending. Of the small firms surveyed, 20% said they had been constrained by the lack of access to or cost of financing, versus 11.9% of large firms.

“Small firms were more likely than large firms to say that since the start of 2026, access to financing, or the cost of financing, constrained their investment or spending plans,” Waddell said in an email to CFO Brew.