THE latest Global Economic Conditions Survey (GECS) published by ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) and IMA (Institute of Management Accountants) found a gloomy outlook clouding Q4 2025. Responses from almost 1,200 finance professionals demonstrated weak global confidence mostly unchanged over the majority of the past year, though meaningfully higher than the trough of Q1 2025.

Highlights and the full report are available at https://www.imanet.org/about-ima/gecs.

The Global New Orders Index suffered a third-consecutive quarterly decline, raising the risk of some moderation in global growth, although it remains significantly above its pandemic-era low. Confidence among chief financial officers (CFOs) improved somewhat, but remained below its historic average, and the key indicators point to caution at their firms.

“Accountants remain cautious entering 2026, amid a highly uncertain global backdrop,” said Jonathan Ashworth, chief economist, ACCA. “The global economy performed better than expected in 2025 and looks set to remain resilient in 2026 amid recent monetary easing by central banks, stock market gains, supportive fiscal policies in key countries, and the ongoing global AI boom. But there remains significant uncertainty, amid a wide array of risks, not least on the geopolitical front, which are more heavily skewed to the downside.”

Accountants flagged economic pressure, cyber disruption, and geopolitical uncertainty as the top risk priorities, underscoring that risks are increasingly complex and interlinked. Despite this, respondents’ preparedness for non-financial shocks — such as cyber threats, misconduct, and fraud — appeared moderate at best, signalling a gap between risk awareness and organisational readiness in an era of heightened uncertainty.

And while confidence rose in Asia Pacific, there was a decline in North America.

“Accountants in North America appear very downbeat at present, albeit somewhat less so than in the first half of 2025,” said Alain Mulder, senior director, Europe operations & global special projects at IMA. “Higher import tariffs, policy uncertainty, and high interest rates likely remain important drags on sentiment.”

“The employment and capital expenditure indices speak to significant caution among businesses in advanced economies,” Mulder continues. “In North America, the Employment Index was at a record low in Q4, even beneath the trough seen during the pandemic, while the Capital Expenditure Index was at its second lowest on record, although it was not that much lower than other readings in recent years.”

Ashworth added, “Key GECS indicators continue to point to the risk of some moderation in global growth, although they are not indicative of a major slowdown. Nevertheless, with confidence low, and corporate caution evident, were another major global shock to occur over coming quarters it could send businesses more firmly into retrenchment mode, raising the risk of a more pronounced slowing in global growth.”

About ACCA

We are ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants), the only truly global accountancy body. Since we were founded in 1904, we’ve been breaking down barriers to the accountancy profession. Today we proudly support a diverse community of over 257,900 members and 530,100 future members in 180 countries.

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ACCA is not affiliated with any Chartered Accountant (CA) organization or Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) organization.

About IMA® (Institute of Management Accountants)

IMA® is one of the largest and most respected associations focused exclusively on advancing the management accounting profession. Globally, IMA supports the profession through research, the CMA® (Certified Management Accountant), CSCA® (Certified in Strategy and Competitive Analysis), and FMAA™ (Financial and Managerial Accounting Associate) certification programs, continuing education, networking, and advocacy of the highest ethical business practices. Twice named Professional Body of the Year by The Accountant/International Accounting Bulletin, IMA has a global network of about 140,000 members in 150 countries and 200+ professional and student chapters. Headquartered in Montvale, NJ, USA, IMA provides localised services through its six global regions: The Americas, China, Europe, Middle East/North Africa, India, and Asia Pacific. For more information about IMA, please visit www.imanet.org.

About GECS

The Global Economic Conditions Survey (GECS), carried out jointly by ACCA and IMA, is the largest regular economic survey of accountants around the world, in both the number of respondents and the range of economic variables it monitors. The GECS has been conducted every quarter since 2011. Its main indices are good lead indicators of economic activity and provide a valuable insight into the views of finance professionals on key variables, such as investment, employment and costs. The risk culture survey began in Q4 2022 and has been included in GECS since Q2 2023.

Fieldwork for the 2025 Q4 survey took place between December 2-15, 2025, gathering 1,188 responses.