Lest you think bankers’ belt-tightening extends to annual conferences at Swiss ski resorts, think again. However, the mood this year is decidedly less jubilant than what we saw in 2007. Here, CEOs speak frankly about their greatest fears headed into 2008.

Recession across the world's biggest economies is the main concern of chief executive officers gathering today in the Swiss ski resort of Davos.

The threat of a decline ranked first among the concerns of business leaders surveyed by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as executives including News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch and Merrill Lynch & Co.'s John Thain attend the World Economic Forum's annual meeting. It was the first time that the risk of a slump topped the survey, which the accounting and consulting firm has conducted for 11 years.

``The big concern on the minds of CEOs is an economic recession,'' said Samuel DiPiazza, chief executive of PricewaterhouseCoopers, in an interview in Davos.

The assembly of business leaders, investors, policy makers and academics takes place after stock markets from Hong Kong to London tumbled on speculation the world economy will be hobbled as a U.S. slowdown spreads. While the Federal Reserve yesterday lowered its benchmark interest rate in the first emergency shift since 2001, U.S. stocks still fell for a fifth day.

``There's panic in the markets and the effect of the Fed's rate move is already fizzling out,'' said Axel Heitmann, a delegate and chief executive officer of Lanxess AG, a German maker of chemicals used by the leather and automotive industries.

Just half the 1,150 executives surveyed by PricewaterhouseCoopers said they were ``very confident'' about revenue growth this year, down from 52 percent last year. The drop was the first since 2003 and most pronounced in the U.S. and Europe.

The prospect of shrinking economies beat out over- regulation, terrorism and a dozen other challenges listed in the PricewaterhouseCoopers survey. The mood is in contrast to the buoyancy of last year's meeting, where guests celebrated a bumper year of profits and bonuses, and the strongest global economy in three decades on the ski slopes and party circuit.

Last year ``it was go-go-go, we're all going to win,'' said DiPiazza. ``The CEOs of the developed world know we're in for a bumpy ride…''

(Continue reading on Bloomberg)

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