Political will needed to further boost business confidence, ICC Secretary General tells CNBC
Discussing latest findings of the ICC/Ifo World Economic Survey on CNBC’s Worldwide Exchange programme this morning, ICC Secretary General Jean-Guy Carrier said that a great and growing uncertainty about political leadership was affecting the world economy, and that recent events such as the US shut down and mystery over China’s Third Plenum announcement on reform were contributing to uncertainty for the longer term.
During the live interview with anchor Ross Westgate on CNBC’s global business programme Mr Carrier said that while slow signs of recovery from a serious crisis would comfort investors, there remained a strong sense of caution for what could be on the horizon.
“Sentiment among ICC’s network of over 6 million enterprises in over 120 countries is more positive than it was 12 months ago and this is affecting decisions for them to go ahead and invest, make acquisitions, execute expansion plans and to increase their volumes of trade,” he said.
Mr Carrier said that despite signs of recovery and improved confidence, slow progress on multilateral discussions, such as those on climate change taking place this week in Warsaw, was not a very positive sign.
“Everyone in the business community is now very much focused on the World Trade Organization ministerial in Bali next month, where there is a tremendous expectation for at least a minimalist deal that will greatly stimulate growth,” Mr Carrier said, pointing out that reaching an agreement on trade facilitation alone could inject one trillion dollars into the economy and create over 20 million jobs. “These are the sorts of markers that businesses are looking at to get some confidence in political leadership and to be able to take advantage of signs of recovery,” he concluded.
View Jean-Guy Carrier on CNBC’s Worldwide Exchange
