"Compared to our last survey in November 2008, the number of managers who believe that the situation will get worse has increased by 8% to 63% and barely 5% believe that we have reached the bottom already," Roland Berger reported on its web side.
The survey was conducted in February and March 2009 among more than 300 managers in Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Russia and Ukraine and some other CEE countries.
"Regardless of the nationality, companies' top problems are reduced orders, worse payment behavior and financing difficulties," the consulting firm reported.
The mood among those polled drastically worsened in the last quarter of 2008.
The most pessimistic CEOs were in Russia, Ukraine and Romania, while optimism was the highest among Austrian and Polish respondents.
"The reason for pessimism lies in the fact that some countries have not defined well their economic priorities, that is, measures which some countries are taking to get out of the crisis are not sufficient," said Vladimir Preveden, the executive director of the Zagreb office of Roland Berger last Tuesday.
As high as 83 percent of managers have stopped new employment and 72 percent have jettisoned investment plans, according to the survey.