SYDNEY - Confidence among Asian businesses rebounded sharply this quarter to hit an 18-month high with firms reporting a pickup in sales, though most are holding off on hiring as trade war uncertainty weighs, a Thomson Reuters/INSEAD survey found.
The Thomson Reuters/INSEAD Asian Business Sentiment Index .TRIABS RACSI tracking firms’ six-month outlook jumped 13 points to 71 for the fourth quarter. That lifted confidence from close to a decade low in the previous quarter to its highest since June last year. “Conditions, expectations and some of the uncertainty has improved over the last quarter,” said Antonio Fatas, economics professor at global business school INSEAD in Singapore, pointing to easing tensions between China and the United States.
Respondents rated their chief risk as the Sino-U.S. trade war, which has been a regular feature in the survey for much of the past two years as the conflict has weighed on global growth.
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