IBR index shows business optimism collapsing under rising global uncertainty

Wednesday, October 19, 2011 | Posted by: Fiona Cullinan
Categories: Thought leadership | Tags: statistics, economy, IBR, International business report, Europe, debt, index, crisis, US, optimism

New figures from Grant Thornton’s International Business Report (IBR) show a pandemic collapse in business optimism during the third quarter of 2011 with net global business optimism dropping from 31% to just 3%.

The impact of recent financial instability and economic woes in both the US and the Eurozone has been dramatic, reveals Grant Thornton’s quarterly IBR survey.

The optimism of business owners in mature markets has been hit particularly hard; in North America optimism has dropped from 43% to 3%, and in the EU from 34% to 0%.

Uncertainty has also spread to key emerging markets with both China and India seeing net optimism decline by 29 percentage points – although, as we reported earlier this week, India is a potential port in the global storm and it remains in the top 10 of the IBR optimism index.

Read the full story and see the optimism index by country here.

Image: (CC) Nicu Buculei

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