CEOs in Ireland are considerably more confident about the prospects for the economy in the year ahead than their global peers are about their own markets.
According to KPMG's CEO Outlook, 68% of chief executives expect the Irish economy to avoid recession in the year ahead, compared to 86% of global business leaders who expect a recession in their markets.
However, were a recession to occur, 80% of Irish CEO's say it would cause further disruption to their business and make it difficult to rebound from the pandemic, broadly in line with global sentiment.
KPMG Managing Partner Seamus Hand said the global economy is currently facing significant headwinds and many businesses are having to adapt quickly to manage the impact of this.
"While Ireland is not immune to these challenges, it is clear from the results in our report that Irish CEOs believe that the economy is resilient and remains in a strong position relative to other markets thus enabling it to weather this storm".
"While Irish CEOs are navigating short term challenges, they are very confident in the growth prospects for their companies and the Irish economy over the next three years," he said.
The most immediate business concerns for Irish CEOs are rising interest rates, inflation and continued supply chain interruption.
Looking further ahead, they said the top threat to their organisation’s growth over the next three years remains supply chain risk, followed by risk in relation to emerging and disruptive technology, reputation and tax changes.
Hybrid working has proven to have had a positive impact on productivity in the workplace according to 64% of CEOs in Ireland – significantly ahead of the 44% globally.
The business leaders said it has also had a greater impact on collaboration and innovation in the workplace with over 72% saying it has helped keep staff compared with 49% globally.
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They are, however, equally seeing some challenges with over a third seeing a negative impact on employee morale.
"The future of work is constantly evolving, however we see a clear pattern where the office remains central to ensuring people feel connected, for learning and development and for building working relationships," Mr Hand said. "This is complemented by the flexibility hybrid working affords employees."
ESG is increasingly becoming a priority for CEOs, but the report found a lack of appropriate technology solutions is seen as a key challenge. The majority of CEOs (80%) are seeing increased demand for reporting and transparency from regulators and investors.
A total of 44% of Irish CEOs said they see lack of appropriate technology solutions as their greatest barrier to achieving net zero ambitions– a significantly higher proportion when compared with their global peers (18%).
Now in its seventh year, the KPMG CEO Outlook provides an in-depth three-year outlook from hundreds of global executives including 50 CEOs from Ireland on strategic risk and opportunity, enterprise, and economic growth.
