TAG: Malaysia
Some 20 years after the Asian financial crisis brought many South-east Asian nations to their knees, business sentiment is buoyant in a region that now functions as the primary engine of global growth, according to the results of our inaugural Business Barometer: OBG in ASEAN CEO Survey. This is the first time we have collated our proprietary data from individual ASEAN markets covered by OBG into a collective sample, allowing us to provide commentary on regional investor sentiment, as well as observe differing national perceptions within the bloc.
Against a backdrop of China’s rebalancing towards consumption-driven growth and the looming threat of global trade war, executives who participated in the inaugural Business Barometer: OBG in ASEAN CEO survey were resolutely positive about the regional prospects for expansion and investment in the near future.
As the rhetoric from the US White House swerves from combative to compromise and back again, uncertainty in the global trading environment is creating potential pitfalls for emerging markets the world over. In the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), which counts China as its largest trading partner, member states watch with trepidation as President Donald Trump ramps up threats of levies on nearly all Chinese products shipped to the US.