Dominic King reports from the IMF Spring Conference where Big Data, the oil price drop, an ageing population, the sustainable development goals, water scarcity and tax evasion are on the agenda.
Almost three months on from the launch of the European Central Bank's quantitative easing programme, new research from the Grant Thornton International Business Report (IBR) reveals a jump in business optimism in the eurozone in the first quarter of 2015, with confidence moving back up towards pre-crisis levels.
Will the CMU positively impact the dynamic businesses that drive growth across the EU? The EC estimates today that the EU’s medium sized enterprises receive one fifth of the funding that their counterparts in the United States can access. Clearly the EC would like to eliminate the gap, allowing the growth engine of the EU to benefit from simpler, more ready access to capital with an intended benefit of stronger growth and jobs.
Companies are increasingly focused on high-quality strategic transactions, with less time spent on investigating peripheral opportunities, according to our International Business Report (IBR), a survey of 5,400+ business leaders in 35 economies.
Francesca Lagerberg explains why we continue to call for greater gender diversity in business and explains how our 2015 report - The path to leadership - adds to the debate.
Our 2015 women in business report looks at how to facilitate the career paths of women into senior management and offers 12 recommendations to society, government, businesses and women themselves about how to better support female advancement.
Food & Beverage (F&B) executives globally are ready to expand via exports. This is especially clear here in Europe, where in 2013 the EU28 became the world’s top exporter of agricultural and food products, outperforming the United States, Brazil, China and others.
Rob McGillen, global head of technology at Grant Thornton, asks how important ICT infrastructure to business growth prospects and which economies are performing best.
Drawing on 10,000 interviews with company leaders and international forecast data, this report considers the outlook for the global economy and what this means for business growth prospects in 2015.