Global production and supply chain risks: insights from a survey of leading companies

This box summarises the findings of an ad hoc survey of leading firms operating in the euro area, looking at current trends in global production location and input sourcing, and their impact on activity and prices. The responses indicate that firms increasingly expect to respond to heightened geopolitical risk. In the next five years, more so than in the last five years, firms expect to diversify the location of their operations and their sources of inputs, and to move operations and supply chains to countries that are geographically and geopolitically closer to the final points of sale. Many firms that source critical inputs from China are reducing this exposure. Geopolitical risk is now the most important factor behind decisions to relocate operations into the EU, while demand and cost factors still drive relocations out of the EU. Overall, the aggregate impact which relocation decisions will have on the share of value added generated by firms in the EU is unclear, but such decisions have already pushed up prices and will continue to do so – albeit to a lesser extent – in the next few years. JEL Classification: C83, F13, F51, L23