(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-01-18 15:25

About 77 percent of private businesses in China are optimistic about the country's economy for the next 12 months. In spite of a fall of nine percent in comparison to last year's figures, Chinese businesses rank the eighth this year among all 34 economies participated in the survey of Grant Thornton's International Business Report (IBR) 2008 (see Table 1).

Table 1. Global businesses’ confidence in local economy for 2008
Business Owner Confidence (Optimism/pessimism %*)
#		2008	2007	2006
1	Philippines	95	88	71
2	India	95	97	93
3	Vietnam	87	-	-
4	Singapore	84	84	64
5	Hong Kong	82	69	61
6	Poland	78	42	26
7	Australia	77	62	64
8	Chinese mainland	77	86	79
9	South Africa	75	74	80
10	Denmark	74	-	-
11	Brazil	70	47	-
12	Netherlands	70	86	63
13	Germany	67	66	41
14	Botswana	66	41	- 12
15	Mexico	62	62	68
16	Armenia	61	57	-
17	Sweden	61	67	51
18	Russia	58	57	21
19	Canada	42	60	57
20	Malaysia	38	41	36
21	Argentina	38	68	62
22	France	36	30	1
23	New Zealand	30	42	23
24	Turkey	28	0	58
25	Belgium	26	-	-
26	US	22	14	32
27	Greece	22	27	1
28	Ireland	17	82	84
29	UK	14	43	8
30	Spain	1	43	14
31	Italy	0	21	- 8
32	Taiwan	- 9	- 3	- 19
33	Thailand	- 30	30	9
34	Japan	- 44	- 5	- 18
	East Asia average	40	54	42
	Global average	42	45	39

Optimism among Chinese companies is evident. Their expectation for 2008 in five out of the seven business indicators made China into the global top ten. These areas include turnover (ranks 3rd), employment (ranks 8th), profitability (ranks 4th), investment in new building (ranks 5th) and investment in plant & machinery (ranks 9th) (see Appendix 1).

"In 2007, the Chinese mainland's economy substantially outperformed many other developed and developing economies. Its overall business outlook is definitely more favourable when compared with those in other parts of the world. Unsurprisingly, 2008 will be another bullish year for China with the prosperous climate brought by the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games," said Desmond Yuen, Partner and Head of China Practice at Grant Thornton in Hong Kong.

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