"Thailand survey respondents are clearly saying that energy and raw-material costs have a major impact on their bottom line," said Peter Walker, a Grant Thornton partner in Thailand.

"It is worrying, though, that while Thailand ranks high in the list of countries where energy costs reportedly have a large impact, Thailand ranks very low in the list of countries where significant energy-management action is being taken," he said. "Clearly, Thai business leaders need to start taking energy and environmental issues more seriously."

The IBR surveys the opinions of 7,200 privately held businesses in 32 countries, representing 81 per cent of global gross domestic product.

The biggest worry for businesses is the cost of raw materials, with 44 per cent of respondents around the world identifying this as having a major effect on cost pressures over the next year. Forty-one per cent said they were concerned about staff costs, 37 per cent about energy costs and 34 per cent about transport costs.

Property costs (15 per cent) are expected to make a lesser impact over the coming year. Thai firms rank relatively high in their concern about the impact of energy and raw-material costs.

However, energy costs appear to be affecting Europe more than the rest of the world. Businesses in five of the region's top 10 countries cited energy as having a major impact on cost pressures: Germany (58 per cent), Ireland (47 per cent) and France, Luxembourg and Italy (all 44 per cent).

Companies in the Philippines (68 per cent) topped the world for their concern over the impact of energy-cost pressures, followed by Botswana (65 per cent). Thai respondents were in fourth place, with 55 per cent claiming energy costs would have a major effect. Only 18 per cent of companies in Australia expressed concern over energy costs, making it the country least likely to be impacted.

Companies from almost every continent appear at the top of the table to predict that raw-material costs will have a broader impact on global businesses. Sixty-one per cent of businesses in Spain said they expected to be affected most by the cost of raw materials, followed by 60 per cent of those in Botswana and Singapore.

Thailand and France come next, with 56 per cent expecting a major impact from raw-material costs.

The report said companies in the Philippines, Brazil and China had done the most to date to manage future energy-cost pressures, while those in Thailand and Singapore had done the least.

This is measured by six energy and environmental initiatives: an energy review, a reduction in energy consumption, turning off electrical equipment, investing in energy-saving equipment, investing in alternative-fuel and -energy supplies and consideration of relocating to reduce transportation costs.

Out of a maximum score of 600, companies in the Philippines (410) lead the way, followed by Brazil (360), China (341), Malaysia (307), Germany (306) and Turkey (303).

Thailand businesses figured poorly, managing to score only 178 out of a possible 600 points, putting them next to last in global ranking.

"Politically, and in public opinion, more emphasis is being placed on climate-change issues, energy usage and environmental management," Walker said. "It is time businesses recognised the fact that unless they take action to reduce their impact on the environment and better manage their energy usage, it will harm their long-term competitiveness.

"Of course, national governments have a significant role to play in looking at the long-term competitiveness of their economies and factoring energy and environmental issues into that equation. Unless they take action to actively encourage businesses to invest for the future and reduce their impact on the environment, they will ultimately damage their economies."