17 | PwC’s 21st CEO Survey In regions where emerging economies are Regional overlaps are interesting, but so dominant – Latin America, Central & Eastern are the differences in terms of top threats. Europe, the Middle East, and Africa – ‘social ‘Cyber threats’ are the No. 1 concern in North instability’ is a consistent top 10 ‘extreme America, for example, but rank only 11th in concern’. ‘Protectionism’, on the other hand Central & Eastern Europe and 15th in Latin –which makes the top 10 in North America, America. Similarly, ‘availability of key skills’ Western Europe, and Asia-Pacific – does is the top threat in Asia-Pacific and Central not register as an overriding concern in & Eastern Europe, but is not even among the these regions. top five in any other region. ‘Populism’ rises to the top of the Western European and Latin Looking across the top 10 threat lists of all American threat lists, and is of concern in seven regions, ‘geopolitical uncertainty’, Africa and Central & Eastern Europe, but it’s ‘over-regulation’, and ‘increasing tax burden’ of moderate to low interest in North America, are the three that appear on every region’s Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East. radar (see Exhibit 8). ‘Availability of key skills’ and ‘speed of technological change’ appear on every list except those of Latin America and Africa, respectively. Perhaps the most ominous finding is terrorism’s rise in the rankings; it is a top five ‘extreme concern’ in every region save Africa.