Asian business sentiment improving in Q4

A third of the 96 companies that responded to the latest Business Sentiment Survey reported a positive outlook for the next six months, an increase from 33 per cent in the third quarter. Negative responses declined from 9.3 per cent to 7.3 per cent while neutral responses rose to 59.4 per cent from 57.7 per cent.
The overall index reading was 63, up slightly from 62 in the third quarter and higher than 57 in the fourth quarter of last year.
Media and financial-data firm Thomson Reuters, in associa-|tion with INSEAD, an interna-|tional business school, polled |more than 100 executives in 11 |Asia-Pacific countries across a |broad range of industries includ-|ing automobiles, financials, resources, technology, food and retail.

Survey highlights:
lBusiness sentiment at Asia’s top companies rose slightly in the fourth quarter.
lGlobal economic uncertain-|ty continues to rank as the chief |business risk across all industries and countries as it has for the |past year and a half. Rising |costs were the second-greatest |risk followed by “others” such as |regulatory uncertainty, political instability and foreign-exchange volatility.
lThe Asia Corporate Sentiment Index rose to 63 from 62 last quarter. An index above 50 indicates a positive outlook.
lThe sentiment of Chinese |companies rebounded this quarter from an all-time low in the pre-|vious quarter. Two companies |were positive, five were neutral |and none reported a negative sentiment.
lThree out of seven respon-|dents in mainland China said employment levels were higher, which was a significant improvement from only one respondent in the previous quarter.
lCompanies in Taiwan were the most negative in Asia with a 33 index reading compared with 40 last quarter. Companies in Japan followed with 44 compared with 48.
lAirlines and the building industry were the most negative with index readings of 0 and 25.
lIndia, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines were tied for the most positive responses with readings of 100, followed by Thailand with 75.
lFood was the most positive among industries with a reading of 77 compared with 73 last quarter, followed by the drug industry with 72, although that was a decline from 80 last quarter.
lThe finance industry was |overwhelmingly neutral with a |reading of 50 – with 14 of the 18 respondents reporting a neutral reading, two reporting a negative reading and two reporting a positive reading.
The poll was conducted from December 3-14.