Asia-Pacific executives concerned over near-term economic outlook

Asia-Pacific executives concerned over near-term economic outlook

Global executives have become less upbeat about the economic outlook, but concerns are most pronounced in the developed Asia- Pacific economies, a survey showed on Saturday.

Across every region, confidence levels have fallen 6 percent since the start of the year, according to the McKinsey Global Survey of Business Executives in Singapore.

Concern over the near term is greatest in Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan.

The majority of the 5,500 senior corporate and business leaders polled in May remain broadly positive with the confidence index above 50 for all regions, indicating positive responses outnumber negative ones.

The Asia-Pacific has the lowest confidence index of 61, down from 64 previously.

Less than half of the region's executives expect conditions in either their economies or industries to improve in the next six months.

European executives, who shared the lowest confidence index of 64 in the January survey, are now more enthusiastic about their industry prospects. Overall the confidence index for European executives was 62.

Singling out India and China, McKinsey said while executive confidence in these two prime destinations for outsourcing and foreign investment has fallen, "it remains so high...as to buoy sentiment in the developing countries as a whole".

McKinsey attributes rising oil prices and growing fears of interest rate hikes in the early months of this year to the decreased optimism across the board. -- DPA