The research analyzes the perception of 421 CEOs in Romania on the evolution of their business during the second half of 2019, considering indicators such as turnover, profit, investments, staff numbers and salary levels. The survey was conducted between September 2 and October 15.
Compared with the sentiment for the first half of the year, CEOs are more conservative regarding growth outlooks in the second half. The number of companies expecting their turnover to grow 5%-10% dropped by 8 percentage points, partly offset by a 5 percentage point increase in the number of companies expecting growth in turnover of 10%-20%. The number of companies expecting their turnover to remain the same as in 2018 increased by 6 percentage points.
In terms of sector of activity, the biggest growth in turnover, of 20%-30%, is expected by 19% of companies operating in the food industry and agriculture.
The survey found outlooks on profits in the second half of the year are more pessimistic on the 5%-10% growth segment, but more optimistic on higher growth segments. Although 32% of companies (compared with 26% in the first half) expect their profit to grow 10%-30% this year, an increasing number of companies expect profits to drop. Around 9% of companies (compared with 8% in the first half) expect their profits will not grow in 2019.
In terms of sector of activity, the biggest growth in profit, of 10%-20%, is expected by 32% of companies in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries.
Compared with the first half of 2019, when 23% of companies said they wouldn’t increase investments in 2019, 21% feel the same in the second half of the year. Also, 43% of companies plan to increase investments by 1%-10%, compared with 36% in the first half. On the other hand, 14% said they would increase investments by 20%-30% and by over 30% in the second half, compared with 11% in the first half.
Industry-wise, the biggest growth in investments, of 10%-20%, is planned by 23% of companies in agriculture and the food industry.
In terms of employee numbers, 29% of Romanian companies expect staff numbers to remain unchanged, compared with 26% in the first half. At the same time, 41% of companies expect staff numbers to grow 1%-10% this year, while 11% of companies expect staff numbers to grow 20%-30% and above, compared with 5% of companies in the first half.
In agriculture and the food industry, 24% of companies expect to hire 5%-10% more staff this year.
Salary-wise, 18% of companies have no plans to raise salaries, compared with 22% at the beginning of the year. While the number of companies planning to raise salaries by 5%-10% in 2019 dropped by 2 percentage points, the number of companies planning to raise salaries by 10-20% grew to 17% from 12% in the first half.
The main challenges for companies in the second half of 2019 are: attracting and retaining workforce (62%), increasing competitiveness (55%), managing business expansion (34%), increased costs (28%) and invoice collection (26%).