Business sentiment worldwide has been steadily declining, according to two separate reports published on 6 July by two research firms, based on a survey conducted among a number of companies.
The Remuneration Data Specialists (RDS) and 2011 Grant Thornton International Business Report (IBR) survey on salary increases and recruitment discovered that business outlook is trending downwards worldwide.
The IBR findings showed that business optimism has yet to improve in Q2, after the natural disasters, political instability and economic uncertainty, complicated by sovereign debt issues in the Eurozone.
Aside from Japan, optimism in the Asia Pacific region dipped 11 percent over the last quarter, while optimism in Singapore fell from 70 percent in Q1 to 64 percent in Q2.
Ed Nusbaum, Chief Executive Officer of Grant Thornton International, called for international organisations and governments to take the helm and steer the economy, saying, “If businesses are left unconvinced that their leaders can deal with these issues, what is currently a stutter has the potential to become an economic stall.”
Although RDS’ survey focused on salaries, incentives and recruitment, its overall findings echoed the companies’ insecurities.
The average wage increase for this year is forecasted at approximately 4.1 percent, slightly higher than the 3.6 percent seen in the previous year.
For the rest of the year, 74 percent of the companies expect no changes, 23 percent see improved output, while three percent feel that the global business outlook will worsen.
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