Good morning. CFOs are ending 2025 more confident, even as they confront a mixed growth outlook and mounting pressure to deliver efficiency gains from AI.
Deloitte’s Q4 2025 CFO Signals report, released this morning, finds the CFO Confidence Score at 6.6, higher than the Q3 reading of 5.7, and the highest score since late 2021. The score, the highest 10, measures CFO confidence in economic conditions and sentiment about the capital markets.
CFOs raised their assessment of the North American economy this quarter, with 36% rating the current environment as very good or good, and 56% saying they expect it to be much better or better in 12 months. Meanwhile, 86% of finance chiefs surveyed are more optimistic about their company’s prospects than they were just three months ago.
Nearly six in 10 now say it is a good time to take more risk, reversing the more cautious sentiment seen over the prior two quarters. The findings are based on a Q4 survey of 200 CFOs at companies across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, each with at least $1 billion in annual revenue.
However, at the same time, CFOs modestly dialed back expectations for six metrics—revenues, earnings, dividends, capital allocation, domestic hiring, and domestic wages and salaries—suggesting they are preparing to move ahead in a world where demand may be softer than hoped. This underscores the “mixed bag” reality finance leaders are navigating.
