Businessmen more upbeat this year

Businessmen more upbeat this year

By Marianne V. Go
The Philippine Star 01/05/2006
http://www.philstar.com/philstar/NEWS200601050706.htm

Business owners in the Philippines are more upbeat this year, a survey conducted by Grant Thornton International showed yesterday.

The survey found out that business owners in the Philippines are more optimistic this year than last year.

The International Business Owners Survey (IBOS) by Grant Thornton was carried out among more than 7,000 owners of medium-sized businesses from 30 countries around the world in August last year.

The survey result showed that there is a marked shift in the mood of medium-sized businesses around the globe and a shift in optimism about the economy away from the robust performers of recent years such as the US and the UK.

The confidence index of business owners in the US about their economy has dropped by nearly half from last year’s +62 to just +32 this year.

Likewise, business owners in the UK are more pessimistic about their economy with their outlook last year of an already pessimistic +46 dropping to just + 8 this year.

On the other hand, business owners in Japan are slowly becoming optimistic showing a negative outlook of just 14 from the previous three years’ rating of negative 27.