THE ECONOMIST

Global business barometer

Collapsing confidence

Nov 10th 2011, 17:03 by The Economist online

Global business executives expect worse times ahead

GLOBAL business sentiment is worse now than on the eve of the financial crisis in 2008, according to The Economist/FT survey of over 1,500 senior executives conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit. Just 14% of those polled expect business conditions to improve over the next six months. Overall confidence, measured as the balance of executives who think the global economy will improve against those who expect it to worsen, plunged from a bullish 19 percentage points in May to minus 39 in October. In September 2008 a similar survey put confidence at minus 37 points. On the topical question of the future of the euro zone, one in five thinks the currency union will fragment. But there are marked regional differences: 30% of Asian executives doubt the euro’s survival, compared with only 4% of eastern Europeans.

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