Global accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers expects mid-single digit percentage growth this financial year to end-June as it focuses on the Middle East and other emerging markets. PWC, one of the "Big Four" accounting firms, expects to add 250 new hires over the next six months in the Middle East as it steps up its activity in the region, the group's Chairman Dennis Nally told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference in Riyadh. "June 30, 2011, we see real positive growth in the mid-single digit growth across our network, to date ... led by markets like the Middle East, China, India, Brazil. That is really what is driving our growth agenda today," Nally said. PwC said in October its global revenue for the financial year to June 2010 was up 0.3 percent at $26.6 billion. The firm blamed the sluggish global economy and pricing pressures of weighing on its business. But Nally said he expected a better environment over the next year as business continues to shift to emerging markets. PwC invested over $50 million in the past 18 months in the Middle East on hiring and is looking to invest more this year. "We have a growth rate in the region of 46 percent, year to date...The demand by our clients in the market is very significant. We are going to continue to invest and bring in talent to serve our clients and the market place," Nelly said. Transparency remains a challenge for growth as some firms in Saudi Arabia and other countries in the region do not regularly disclose information critical to investors, Nally said. "The issue of transparency...becomes really challenging in some respects because a number of the companies here in Saudi Arabia in particular are privately held," he said. Nally said he expected stable growth in business in the United States over the next 12 months. "The US economy is actually feeling better today ... Not going to see the kind of growth pre-recession, but nonetheless pretty stable growth predicted for the next 12 months," he said.
