Dear IMA members in Europe,
I’ve very much enjoyed meeting with many of you now that we’ve been able to resume some in-person activities. I’ve missed these face-to-face interactions, and I’m sure you have as well. As you’ll see in other articles in this newsletter, we hosted a wonderful celebration of the 30th anniversary of our affiliation with Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, marking three decades of the CMA® (Certified Management Accountant) certification in Europe. We also kicked off our first Finance Transformation International Conference in Paris. Despite these successes, we will continue to proceed cautiously with adding more in-person events, as IMA Global and we at IMA Europe are very mindful of the priority of health and safety. Please check our IMA Europe website regularly for the latest updates about all chapter and global events.
I want to draw your attention, as I do every newsletter, to the results of the IMA/ACCA Global Economic Conditions Survey (GECS), most recently for the second quarter of 2021. This GECS points to the global economy gathering momentum through the second half of this year. While global confidence dipped slightly in Q2, this occurred after the biggest jump in confidence in the 10-year history of the survey last time. The survey also found wide regional variation in changes in confidence. Large increases in Europe (both Central and Eastern and Western) contrast with significant falls in Asia Pacific and South Asia. To a large extent these changes reflected the effect of progress with vaccines here in Europe and, unfortunately, increased COVID-19 infections in the Asia Pacific and South Asia regions. Other findings for Europe point to expectations of a modest increase in inflation over the next five years. We will continue to monitor the pulse of economic recovery.
Just a friendly reminder for our CMA-certified members: Be sure to earn your 30 hours of CPE before the end of the calendar year, including two credits in the area of ethics. IMA offers an outstanding array of courses, webinars, podcasts, and certificate courses, many of them offered free of charge as a member benefit. Please visit the IMA Education Center to learn more.
And speaking of the CMA, I also invite you to check out IMA’s sixth annual CMA global advertising campaign, which we launched in Europe on 27 September. This year’s campaign takes a humorous approach to the lengths that recruiters, finance teams, and CEOs would go in order to have the best accounting and finance staff, specifically, individuals with a CMA. You can see the TV commercials on YouTube: Window Washers, Cafeteria, and Blending In.
Finally, I invite you to read some of my recent LinkedIn blogs, which discuss some of the important trends facing our profession:
Accountant—Don't be a light bulb!
Are you ready to become a tech-savvy CFO?
I hope to see many of you at some of our upcoming events. Stay well – keep learning.