Aerial photo taken on June 21, 2018 shows the morning view of the Lujiazui area in Pudong, east China's Shanghai. (Xinhua/Ren Long)

Those CFOs responding to this quarter's survey feel more optimistic about the Chinese economy as the country is embracing a steady economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- Global chief financial officers (CFOs) have upgraded China's economic outlook to "Modestly Improving" in the last quarter of the year from "Stable" in the third quarter, showed a recent survey by the CNBC Global CFO Council.

The council, which gathers around 150 CFOs of some of the largest public and private companies in the world, said those CFOs responding to this quarter's survey feel more optimistic about the Chinese economy as the country is embracing a steady economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Photo taken on July 16, 2020 shows a container dock in Tangshan City, north China's Hebei Province. (Xinhua/Yang Shiyao)

Meanwhile, the CFOs have also improved the economic outlook for the United States, Canada and Britain from "Modestly Declining" to "Stable," showed the survey released Wednesday.

In the current quarter, Japan, the rest of Asia and the Eurozone maintained their rating of "Stable," whereas Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and Russia maintained their rating of "Modestly Declining," the survey said.

Around 65 percent of the CFOs surveyed regard the pandemic as the biggest external challenge for their companies, while some 86 percent believe that the hope of a widely available COVID-19 vaccine by next year and the current surge in confirmed cases have the greatest impact on their companies' plans for 2021, it added.