CEOs at some of the world’s strongest organisations have predicted no significant revenue growth this year – The Industry explores. With the European economy largely flat and the US remaining fragile, more than half of the world’s business leaders have said they are not expecting to see growth throughout 2013. Professional services firm, PwC recently quizzed over a thousand CEOs in 68 countries, finding that 52% cite “no growth” as the most likely economic trend.

For the BBC’s business reporter Anthony Reuben, this general consensus alone could prove detrimental to the global economy. “That’s part of a problem, because if more than half of 1,330 global business leaders reckon there’s going to be almost no growth this year, it may be self-fulfilling,” explained Anthony. A further 28% of CEOs foresaw further decline. Coming from some of the world’s most established companies – with the most resilient business models – this statistic is somewhat worrying for smaller companies with far less resources.

PwC also asked CEOs to reveal which non-domestic markets best reflected their overall growth prospects for 2013. The US was cited as the most important by 24%, followed by China, Germany and then France.