Worldwide, CEOs are less confident of their companies’ growth prospects in the next 12 months than they were a year ago, according to the results of the 16th annual Global CEO Survey from PricewaterhouseCoopers. Only 36 percent of the CEOs are “very confident” in growth prospects for the next year, compared with 40 percent in 2012 and 48 percent in 2011.

In the U.S., only 30 percent of respondents are very confident about revenue growth in the next year. Long-term, however, 47 percent said they were very confident about growth in the next three years.

“Of course, CEOs have historically been less bullish about short-term prospects; according to our survey, confidence in near-term growth has only surpassed 50 percent twice in the past decade – in 2008 and 2007,” the report says.

Looking at the economy generally, 28 percent of CEOs say the global economy will decline further in 2013, and only 18 percent predict economic improvement; 52 percent say it will stay the same. While the CEOs’ outlook remains gloomy, the forecast is an improvement on last year when 48 percent of CEOs predicted the global economy would decline in 2012.

The complete report is available at pwc.com.