Business pessimistic on outlook

The results come from the Grant Thornton International Business Report, which surveyed over 7,200 businesses across 36 economies.

For revenues, some continue to have high expectations. Ninety one per cent of business leaders in Vietnam expect higher revenue, India (+71%) and South Africa and Armenia (both at +54%). Others fear the worst, with Hong Kong at -48%, Taiwan (-44%), Japan (-23%) and Spain (-21%).

 Thai business leaders responded negatively on revenues, with an overall balance of -14%, similar to their negative revenue perspective at the start of 2008. On export potential, Thai business leaders followed the pessimistic trend with a negative balance of -11% indicating that many do not expect any significant increase in exports during 2009.

 Not surprisingly, around the world, the results show a significant downward trend on last  year (even for economies still expecting revenue to rise), with a drop of over 50 percentage points from last year's global average for revenue expectations.