Davos 2024: PwC's Bob Moritz Says World To See Volatility In Interest Rates

Across the globe, a degree of volatility might be seen in interest rates as different parts of the world take different policy decisions to address inflation, according to PwC Chairman Bob Moritz.

"In some cases, one could see interest rates coming down, while in other cases, interest rates may go up to bring down the price pressure," he told NDTV Profit's Niraj Shah on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum 2024 in Davos.

If leaders are not equipped enough to move with speed, they may fall behind their competition, subsequently falling behind transformation, he said. "Leaders also have to keep in mind the short-term challenges and about satisfying stakeholders."

The onus is going to be on corporate leaders to drive better returns in the backdrop of high interest rates as pressure on output will increase in the near future, said Moritz.

Historically, management teams have been good at implementation, but extraction of values has been harder for them. In this case, management teams need to think about organisational changes, he said.

"The pressure on outcomes is only going to increase. The leadership teams should be much more prepared to think about optionality, speed, and scale, as well as the ability to lever the IRR and ROI."

Globalisation is not dead; rather, it is going to be rewired as a way to address the implications of one country's changes on another, Mortiz said.

The world used to see a large number of countries coming together on macro-policy-related issues, he said. But now, countries are coming up with regional arrangements like bilateral deals and trilateral deals to address any puzzle pieces of a global nature, he said.

In this case, for countries, deciding what to join and what not to join is going to be an important skillset, Mortiz said. Countries are going to be more focused on what is going to work for them before becoming part of a global collaboration.