Asia-Pacific Region Records Lower Confidence Levels In Q1 2012

KUALA LUMPUR, April 27 (Bernama) -- The global economy has recovered substantially in early 2012 and regained some of the dynamism it had lost over the last year, professional accounting bodies said Thursday. The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA), in a joint statement here said that their latest edition of the Global Economic Conditions Survey, found that the share of respondents reporting confidence gains in their own organisations had nearly doubled from 16 per cent in late 2011 to 29 per cent. While the majority, or 54 per cent, still believed the global economy was deteriorating or stagnating, the figure was down from 73 per cent in the previous quarter, they said. Across the Asia-Pacific region, 23 per cent of respondents reported gains in business confidence (up from 11 per cent in late 2011) against 44 per cent who reported a loss of confidence, down from 53 per cent. This is tied to an increased optimism on the global economy, whereby 34 per cent of respondents in the region felt it was improving or about to, up from 19 per cent three months ago, they said. Despite these positive sentiments, the Asia-Pacific region recorded lower confidence levels in the first quarter of 2012 than any other part of the world. Within the region, Malaysia recorded the smallest confidence gains despite more firms enjoying the upside where 20 per cent reported confidence gains against eight per cent in the last quarter, due to a rising segment of the population reporting strong losses of confidence (22 per cent, up from 13 per cent). This sentiment was recorded even though Malaysia achieved the strongest improvement in investment activity of all the major ACCA/IMA markets. Furthermore, in the Asia-Pacific region, access to finance had improved considerably for businesses, with only 20 per cent of respondents (down from 34 per cent) reporting problems with access to finance. Malaysia led this trend, followed by mainland China. ACCA Malaysia country head, Jennifer Lopez said the low confidence felt in Malaysia was residual of what was felt during the last quarter of 2011. "While our economy is somewhat cushioned from the recession happening in the West, the fact is that Malaysian businesses have been affected by what's happening in that part of the world. "It seems that many are cautious about taking recovery news at face value, and for good reason given how volatile the global economy has been," she said. The survey represented views of about 2,200 professional accountants worldwide. --BERNAMA