Insights

Businesses across Europe have greater concern about the prospect of the UK leaving the EU than Greece leaving the eurozone, according to new research from Grant Thornton. This comes just as the UK is about to go the polls in an election where a potential EU referendum is a major policy battleground, and just ahead of Greece’s deadline to repay almost €1billion to the International Monetary Fund in May.

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.

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.

New research from the Grant Thornton International Business Report (IBR) reveals that while business confidence in 2014 climbed to levels not seen since before the financial crisis, a recent spate of uncertainty is weighing on growth prospects for the year ahead.

Businesses in the world’s three biggest economies, the United States, China and Japan, are increasingly feeling the heat when it comes to recruiting skilled staff. Given that these countries together represent over a third of global output, a deficit of skilled staff could have a significant knock-on effect on economic growth not just in these economies but beyond.

Drawing on data and insight from the Grant Thornton IBR, the Economist Intelligence Unit and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), this short report considers the outlook for the Thai economy, including the expectations of 200 business leaders interviewed in Thailand and more than 10,000 globally, over the past 12 months.

Over the last few years, ask an economist where to look for growth and the answer would usually be the emerging markets. Now, though, with renewed optimism in Japan the UK, and US , should we be looking to the developed economies for new opportunities?

New research shows that rising optimism in Quebec is feeding into brighter business growth prospects but that bureaucracy is constraining those very same growth plans. The results from Grant Thornton’s International Business Report (IBR), a survey of 2,500 senior executives in 34 economies, reveals that despite the roadblocks, businesses in Quebec are focused on incentivising productivity improvement and enhancing sales force effectiveness in a bid to boost growth over the next 12 months.

The third edition in our 'Future of Europe' series looks at three distinct aspects of the regional business, economic and political landscape: recovery, integration and expansion.

Two in five mid-market businesses around the world either currently outsource a back-office process, or plans to in the near future.

Poland’s economy avoided recession during the 2009 financial crisis,and rebounded strongly in 2010-2011. Poland: dynamism at the heart of Europe.

Polska gospodarka uniknęła kryzysu finansowego w 2009 roku. Po okresie spowolnienia, w latach 2010-2011 powróciła na ścieżkę wzrostu. Polska nie mogła jednak całkowicie uniknąć skutków globalnego kryzysu. Wymiana z Europą stanowi bowiem ponad 80% całego polskiego handlu zagranicznego. Gospodarka rosła więc wolniej w porównaniu do czasu sprzed kryzysu gospodarczego, osiągając w latach 2012 i 2013 tempo około 1,5% rocznie.