Most leaders of large companies think measures announced in the budget will not have any effect on their business, according to a recent survey by accounting firm PwC.
Around the same proportion of respondents to the most recent quarterly PwC CEO Confidence Tracker carried out in October said they did not expect to see any change in their company fortunes over the following six months.
“The majority (64%) of CEOs who participated in the latest barometer feel that the measures announced in the 2025 Budget will not have any effect on their respective business,” the report read.
The result “draws parallels to the latest trends… which indicate the majority of CEOs do not envisage any significant uptick in the level of business activity in the next six months”.
Some 58% of CEOs said they did not expect to see business activity change in the following six months.
The report said feedback from 50 CEOs of “Malta’s largest business organisations” suggested the budget had been interpreted as “more geared to the demand-side rather than the supply-side… and addressed to specific strata of the society”.
This interpretation was consistent with reactions to the budget by the main bodies representing Malta’s business community, PwC said.
Reacting to the budget announcement earlier this year, the Malta Chamber said that, though it encouraged consumption, it did “not address productivity, competitiveness and attractiveness for investors”.
The Chamber of SMEs, meanwhile, said the budget fell short of addressing serious employment-related issues and the Malta Employers’ Association said the budget prioritised social measures over those pushing for economic growth.
Not all CEOs surveyed agreed, however; around a fifth (21%) said the measures announced would positively impact their businesses in contrast to the 15% who said the budget would negatively affect their activities.
These differences were broadly mirrored in results for business outlook; 30% said they expected to see business improve over the following six months while 12% said they expected it to dip.
More than a third (36%), meanwhile, said their business had improved over the preceding quarter, with only 15% saying it had gotten worse.
Overall, PwC said the results released last month, which comprised of responses from business leaders in a range of sectors, reflected a “generally consistent and resilient business outlook” and “marginal improvement” in business activity.
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