CEOs says a recession is their biggest fear this year

Talks of a looming recession have been hovering over Wall Street as investors fret about a slowdown in global growth -- and they’re not alone.

According to a new survey published by Conference Board on Thursday, CEOs view a recession as their biggest external concern for 2019. Comparatively, last year CEOs considered the threat of a recession an afterthought, ranking it as their 19th most vital concern.

“Even though leading economic indicators from The Conference Board do not point to imminent recession risks (with the notable exception of the UK, where Brexit has created a stronger risk), global CEOs are concerned about this risk more than any other for the coming year,” the study said.

That’s followed by other fears about the stability of global growth, which some CEOs worried was threatened by a disruption of the global trade systems and the emergence of new, more agile competitors that are creating additional turbulence.

"There is little faith this external turbulence can be contained by the traditional levers of power—public policy and political institutions,” the study reported.

The sentiment has been expressed by other studies, including a recent New York Times survey which found that almost half of all 134 CEOs polled believe that U.S. will enter a recession by the end of 2019. Included in the survey were CEOs from Ford, Verizon and Morgan Stanley.

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In December, nearly half of U.S. CFOs – 48 percent – surveyed by Duke University Fuqua School of Business said they also believe the nation’s economy will enter a recession by the end of 2019. That’s on top of an additional 82 percent who believe that a recession will have begun by the end of 2020.