General

According to a new survey, more than 40% of enterprise decision-makers believe that they urgently need to reform their supply chain in 2023. Inflation, rising interest rates and weakening international trade will be the most serious negative economic factors.

In the survey of HSBC Holdings, only 11% of respondents said that supply chain transformation is not a priority next year, but 42% of respondents plan to do so, and nearly 47% of respondents believe that it is a priority at a certain stage in the future. HSBC Holdings said that the survey was conducted by research company Toluna from September 28 to October 24, covering 2170 executives from medium-sized enterprises in 14 countries.

The survey also showed that people's concerns were not limited to the supply chain. 51% of the respondents said they expected that the international trade environment would be more difficult next year. This is in line with the latest forecast of the World Trade Organization (WTO) that cross-border trade will only grow by 1% next year, while this year's cross-border trade is expected to grow by 3.5%.

When asked about the biggest obstacle to business next year, 38% of respondents thought it was inflation, 32% thought it was interest rate rise, and 27% thought it was an uncertain political environment.

However, the survey shows that, on the whole, enterprises are quite optimistic about the revenue outlook for the next year. More than three quarters of respondents expect sales growth to exceed 10% next year, of which 19% expect sales growth to exceed 20%.

Barry O'Byrne, CEO of HSBC Global Commercial Banking, said: "Enterprises are operating in an increasingly complex global economic landscape and facing various challenges. Despite this, medium-sized enterprises still maintain strong global resilience and ambition."

The following are the breakdown findings of several countries that are particularly critical to supply chain and international trade:

India

Indian business leaders are the most optimistic about the prospects of international trade in 2023. 45% of respondents expect that international trade will become easier, compared with 28% of global respondents. In addition, 70% of enterprises plan to enter at least one new foreign market, and 58% will focus on improving the security of the supply chain.

Australia

The survey shows that nearly half of the enterprises focus on improving the security of the supply chain, but 18% are worried about the lack of high-quality suppliers and high-quality goods.

Malaysia

About 65% of enterprises said that they would focus on improving the sustainability of the supply chain in 2023, but 29% were worried about the lack of high-quality suppliers and goods to support the sustainable supply chain.

Indonesia

Similarly, about 80% of respondents focus on improving the sustainability of the supply chain, but at the same time, 28% of respondents worry about the lack of high-quality suppliers and goods.