CFOs 'hung up on politics', says Deloitte

The majority of Australian chief financial officers (CFOs) are "hung up on politics" and cannot wait for the next election, according to Deloitte chief operating officer Keith Skinner.

Skinner said 71 per cent of CFOs surveyed in its latest quarterly CFO survey cited the lack of political certainty as impacting negatively on confidence levels.

"For the vast majority of CFOs the forthcoming election cannot come soon enough; they continue to be frustrated by the policy intransigence of a hung parliament," he said.

Despite this, CFOs seem to have readjusted to the economic environment and have a more positive outlook for 2013, the survey found.

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One third of CFOs were more optimistic compared to last quarter. Deloitte equated increased levels of optimism with reduced interest rates, stronger growth in China and increased iron ore prices.

Skinner said most ASX300 CFOs seemed to have "right-sized" their businesses, cleaned up balance sheets and had adjusted to the stronger Australian dollar.

"A solid 70 per cent of CFOs expect to see positive revenue growth in the coming year and 63 per cent expect an increase in cash-flow over the same period. 

"These two key indicators have been steadily increasing over the past two quarters," he said.

Skinner said that as the mining boom receded there would be more opportunities for the remaining 80 per cent of the economy to take a greater share of investment dollars and push the Australian dollar back towards parity.

He said this would result in a "shifting of gears" among Australia's non-mining-exposed businesses to more proactive growth strategies including capital expenditure and increased investment in business development.