PwC:Energy and resource costs at highest level for three years

By Rob Starr, Content Manager, Big4.com

CEO concern about energy and raw material costs as a threat to their business growth prospects are at a three year high, according to preliminary results from PwC’s Global Annual CEO Survey.

“With a much more challenging environment for growth, businesses can ill afford price shocks in energy and resource costs for business, so it’s no surprise they are rising up the list of threats to their future growth prospects,” said Richard Gledhill, partner, PwC Sustainability & Climate Change.  “Demand from emerging markets has kept the pressure on commodity prices, and extreme weather or natural disasters have exacerbated price uncertainty and security of supply risks, particularly in agricultural commodities. It’s all adds up to ratchet up CEOs’ concerns.

The past twelve months have seen high profile examples of extreme weather, price shocks in commodity and energy price spikes. Concern is at its highest amongst Asia Pacific and African respondents