Business confidence in the global economy has evaporated amid the escalating eurozone crisis, according to a survey of executives, leaving a mood of pessimism in emerging markets as well as in Europe.
More than half of the 1,600 business executives surveyed by the FT/Economist Global Business Barometer in October expected global conditions to worsen in the next six months, while fewer than 15 per cent expected them to get better. In the previous survey in July, 34 per cent of respondents expected conditions to worsen.
Respondents have become more pessimistic about the prospects for their own industries and companies, though this has been eclipsed by their fears about the global outlook.