Bad times after good ones?

K&H’s large company growth index – which analyses the economic prospects and expectations of the biggest domestic companies – has returned to the level of the first quarter of 2024, -2 points, after taking a dive last autumn.

This article is available for reading in Trade magazin 2025/5.

This means that over the past six months the index rose by 11 points, but it still remains in negative territory. The number of CEOs who say they expect their own economic outlook to worsen in the next twelve months halved in the past quarter.

Looking at companies by sector, service providers tend to be more optimistic: almost a quarter of them expect their own economic situation to improve. More than a quarter of large companies have already reported growing sales turnover in the first three months of 2025. But the big question is: can the US administration’s tariff package put a lid on the rise, can the EU and the US reach a deal or will the index plunge back into the doldrums?, asks Tibor Bodor, head of K&H’s corporate division. //