PwC’s 29th CEO Survey: Germany and India catch up with UK on investment appeal

• UK remains second most important destination for investment for global CEOs, while Germany and India move in to share the spot 

• The UK holds its global ranking despite a sharp drop in confidence in UK economic growth from its own CEOs, with a quarter (25%) expecting the domestic economy to decline over the next 12 months - compared to 13% in 2025

• Half (50%) of UK CEOs question if their businesses are moving fast enough to keep pace with technological change and say their business is hampered by bureaucracy (33%) and suboptimal structures (25%) 

• Tariffs a concern for CEOs globally but UK CEOs feel less exposed than their counterparts

The UK remains the second-most attractive global destination for international investment, but now holds the spot with India and Germany, according to PwC’s 29th Annual Global CEO Survey. Each country is cited by 13% of global CEOs as locations expected to receive the greatest share of their planned investment over the next 12 months. This compares with 14% for the UK last year, 12% for Germany and 7% for India, which has seen interest double year-on-year. The US remains the top choice, extending its lead to 35% from 30% in the previous survey. 

As competition for investment intensifies, the UK has moved to strengthen its position through trade agreements, including the UK-India Free Trade Agreement and a new US-UK economic partnership. These deals aim to reduce barriers and support growth, but clearly if markets like India are becoming more attractive to the UK, they are becoming more attractive investment destinations to other countries too.   

The UK retaining its ranking comes despite a sharp rise in economic uncertainty, with a quarter (25%) of UK CEOs expecting the domestic economy to decline over the next 12 months, compared to 13% in 2025. This compares to 38% of UK CEOs expecting economic growth, which is down from 61% last year. Business leaders continue to be more bullish about the global economy with 60% of UK CEOs expecting the global economy to improve. 

Marco Amitrano, Senior Partner of PwC UK, said:

“Being the world’s second-most important investment destination for a second-year running should not be underestimated. It demonstrates that the UK still looks stable in a turbulent world. But in now sharing that position it’s also a wake-up call – other countries are gaining ground and working hard to market themselves globally. As a leading nation, this now points to the need to step up our game, with government and business working together. This means action to support growth sectors, make the most of trade opportunities, and provide the consistency and clarity that underpins investor confidence. Falling inflation will help lay the groundwork for this, which will in turn build momentum, improve productivity and create opportunity.”  

Positively, UK CEOs feel less exposed than their global peers to inflation, tariffs, geopolitical conflict and macroeconomic volatility. For example, only one in ten (9%) in the UK see their business as significantly exposed to tariffs, compared to two in ten (20%) globally – EU CEOs sit in-between at 14%. Likewise, just 11% of UK CEOs, feel significantly exposed to inflation (down 5 percentage points on last year) compared with 25% globally. 

Whilst concerns with geopolitical conflict decline for UK CEOs (10% vs 16% in 2025), half (51%) say they expect to improve their cybersecurity in response to geopolitical risk.

For UK CEOs looking at outward investment, the US and Germany remain the top two destinations and the trend of Australia increasing in attractiveness has continued as it moves into the top three. Conversely, whilst interest in France has remained stable, it has moved from third to fourth place.

AI investment outpaces impact

UK CEOs are prioritising technology, AI and data investment, with eight in ten (81%) making it their top priority – up from six in ten (60%) last year. Yet return on investment remains limited, with only 21% reporting revenue growth from AI in the last 12 months and 30% seeing cost reductions as a result - most say both are unchanged.

The survey shows global peers are seeing bigger rewards from AI – 29% report revenue gains versus 21% in the UK – although they have incurred higher costs from AI (22% say AI has increased costs vs 8% of UK CEOs). This could reflect the greater investment global CEOs are making. Only a third (33%) of UK CEOs say their AI investment is sufficient to meet their goals, versus 40% globally. Likewise access to skills could play a part - with just a quarter of UK (25%) and US (27%) CEOs believing they can attract high-quality talent, compared to 42% globally and 75% in China.

Business performance hampered by bureaucracy and suboptimal structures 

Confidence in revenue growth is at a five-year low with just 38% of UK CEO’s (30% globally) very confident about revenue growth in the next 12 months. However, they are more confident in their business’ longer-term growth with half (51%) remaining confident in revenue growth over the next three years, compared to 58% last year.  

With half (50%) of UK CEOs concerned whether their business is transforming fast enough, bureaucracy and cumbersome structures appear to be dragging on business performance. One third (33%) say their company has too many unnecessary bureaucratic processes, while only 22% say their organisation tolerates high-risk innovation projects to a large extent. A quarter (25%) believe their structure is suboptimal, and one third (33%) question whether they have the right leadership team in place. 

This comes as two fifths (40%) of UK CEOs say they are not anticipating any M&A activity in the next 12 months, compared to 27% actively pursuing M&A to accelerate growth, and 32% are considering M&A in their own markets to consolidate growth. This is echoed in seven in ten (72%) saying they don’t anticipate divesting any part of their business.  

Marco Amitrano added:

“The speed of tech change is exposing excessive bureaucracy and overly rigid structures - things that can hamper transformation at pace. Those sources of friction are reasons preventing businesses getting important early returns on their investment in AI, slowing down its effectiveness. We know from experience that a tech project on the sidelines isn’t going to deliver the value CEOs are counting on.”

– ENDS –

Notes to Editors 

About PwC’s 2026 Global CEO Survey 

We surveyed 4,454 CEOs in 95 countries and territories from 30 September to 10 November 2025. The global and regional figures in this report are weighted proportionally to country nominal GDP, so CEOs’ views are broadly representative across all major regions. The industry- and country-level figures are based on unweighted data from the full sample of 4,454 CEOs. To learn more about the findings, please visit: http://www.pwc.com/ceosurvey. 

Join the Webcast 

To watch the webcast virtually on Monday 19 January when the findings will be launched at Davos, visit http://www.pwc.com/davos at 18.45 CET / 17:45 GMT / 12:45 EST. During the live webcast, the audience can submit questions on this page and have them answered.