By Andrei Skvarsky.
According to Markit, a global financial information services company, {{{*}}} the global business community is today much more upbeat about the year ahead than it was last October, with the United States and China showing the highest optimism.
“Worldwide business confidence has revived from the post-crisis low seen late last year, with expectations of business activity, revenues and inflows of new business all rising to their highest since the start of last year,” Markit, a London-headquartered firm with over 2,800 employees, said in a press release.
The conclusion is based on February’s Global Business Outlook Survey, the latest of Markit’s tri-annual polls which involve asking around 11,000 manufacturers and service providers for their thoughts on future business conditions.
February’s survey found that the number of companies expecting their business activity levels to rise over the coming year exceeded those anticipating a decline by 39%, compared with a difference of 30% shown in the previous survey last October.
“The upturn in confidence was universal across all main developed countries, with Japan and the Eurozone seeing confidence pick up to the greatest extents compared to late last year,” the press release said.
“Global business sentiment has revived from its postcrisis low seen late last year and points to improved economic growth in the US, Japan, China, the UK and the Eurozone in 2013,” said Markit chief economist Chris Williamson.
“US firms remained the most optimistic of all developed countries, suggesting that the economy is showing reassuring resilience in the face of fiscal policy concerns,” he said.
BRIC cut a somewhat grimmer picture, China being the only country in the four-nation group where the business mood improved, with firms more upbeat than at any time over the past two years.
Sentiment about the year ahead slipped in Russia, India and Brazil, although the latter “continued to see by far the most optimistic mood among the BRICs,” the press release said.
Nor did the BRICs have any spectacular employment plans. Only China and India saw firms’ employment intentions pick up since late last year whereas hiring plans were scaled down in Russia and Brazil, though the latter was the quartet’s member with the most positive hiring intentions.
Also in February, global business advisory firm FTI Consulting said a recent poll carried out by it suggested that business leaders across the world were “surprisingly” optimistic about the global banking industry.
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