CEO confidence plummets

Worldwide, just 21 percent of CEO's said they were very confident of revenue growth in the next 12 months, down from 50 percent in last year's survey, said the 12th Annual global CEO Survey conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The survey, released by the British accounting firm at the 2009 World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, said more than a quarter of business CEOs were pessimistic about prospects for the coming year.
CEOs worldwide were also gloomier about longer term growth as well, predicting a slow recovery, said the survey, which was based on interviews with 1,124 CEOs in 50 countries during the last quarter of 2008.
Only 34 percent of CEOs said they were very confident of growth over the next three years, down from 42 percent last year, when CEOs were just beginning to recognize the full impact of the credit crisis on the global economy.

Australian PM says financial crisis

Australia's largest mining company BHP Billiton said earlier in the day it would cut more than 3,000 local jobs after deciding to shed 6,000 positions worldwide.
Rudd said the global financial crisis would affect Australian jobs.
"The government has been up front about the fact that Australians will be affected, growth will slow, unemployment will rise given the deteriorating global outlook," Australian Associated Press quoted Rudd as saying in Sydney.