Nearly 4 in 10 Singaporeans have pessimistic business outlook: survey

But here's the good thing.

According to the Global Economic Conditions Survey (GECS) from ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) and the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA), while 52 per cent of all respondents in Singapore reported a loss of confidence in the prospects of their organisations in the second half of 2012, only 38 per cent did so in the first six months of 2013.

Finance professionals in Singapore are also becoming much more optimistic about macroeconomic developments, with 44 per cent hopeful for the global economic recovery in the first half of 2013, claiming that things were either getting better or about to do so. Only 19 per cent had felt this way in the second half of 2012.

Emmanouil Schizas, ACCA senior economic analyst and editor of the GECS, said: “Across the globe the survey shows the highest level of optimism about the national and global economies in two years, and the strongest year-on-year improvement in three years.

The GECS findings are also pointing towards signs of recovery in Singapore. Singapore businesses have halted a year-long slide in capital spending and investment in staff and reported improved access to growth capital.