Chief Risk Officers Outlook: October 2024

A survey of the World Economic Forum's community of chief risk officers highlights a range of global risks with the potential to threaten economic growth, destabilize geopolitical relations further and disrupt broader business operations over the coming months.

This second edition of the Chief Risk Officers Outlook launches against a backdrop of domestic political uncertainty in the United States and ongoing major conflicts in the Middle East, Ukraine and Russia, and Sudan. The report aims to provide a pulse check from the perspective of on-the-ground risk practitioners, conducted through a new survey of the World Economic Forum’s community of chief risk officers.

Chief risk officers are most concerned with geopolitical and geoeconomic relations between major economies for the remainder of 2024, with the majority anticipating widespread volatility. Compared to the same period in 2023, the share of respondents anticipating volatile conditions has increased. Regionally, while the risk outlook in terms of volatile conditions is uncertain on a global basis, the majority of chief risk officers anticipate high, widespread volatility in the Middle East and North Africa region for the remainder of 2024.