CFOs cautiously optimistic about growth

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Nearly three out of four chief financial officers of major companies anticipate economic expansion in their countries over the next year, according to a global survey released Tuesday by American Express and CFO Research.

That's the rosiest outlook within the past three years for the annual survey.

The poll also found that 80% of respondents expect to see a sustained rise in demand for their company's products and services this year. But the pickup is just beginning: Only 20% of the CFOs surveyed said their companies have already experienced higher demand, while 47% expect a jump in the second or third quarter of this year.

"We're seeing a significant shift to a more positive outlook among finance executives," Gunther Bright, senior vice president of American Express' (AXP, Fortune 500) Global Client Group, said in a prepared statement. "Companies have moved from simply surviving the present to investing in growth for the future."

The survey, conducted in April, asked 479 CFOs from the United States and other nations in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia about their thoughts on the future of the economy. (Small business owners are noticeably less upbeat about the economy.)

Although finance executives are broadly optimistic about the recovery, sentiment is brightest in Asia. In Hong Kong, 87% of respondents said they expect growth in the year ahead, followed by Singapore at 82% and India at 78%.

Finance executives in large, industrialized countries -- which have suffered from weighty deficits and high unemployment rates -- had a more tempered response. Only 71% of CFOs in the United Kingdom expect growth in the next year, while Germany (66%) and the United States (64%) had even dimmer growth outlooks.

Overall, CFOs remain cautious. The vast majority of those surveyed -- 85% -- say they will continue to focus on cost control.

"Companies enacted strict new spending policies to protect the bottom line during the recession, and finance executives fully expect to enforce these policies for the foreseeable future," Bright said.

But where they see upside, companies are ready to invest.

Forty-four percent of respondents say they will spend more money this year to improve production by streamlining manufacturing or upgrading technology systems, and 42% will invest in upgrading administrative processes such as finance, accounts payable, and procurement.

And in what could be good news for job hunters, 28% of those polled said they would devote more resources to labor. This could help boost a job market that, although improving, continues to sputter.