Brazil, India top business confidence index: Report

New Delhi: Amid Eurozone crisis and uncertain economic climate, emerging economies of Brazil and India have topped the business confidence index, confirming their role as key drivers of the global economy, says a Regus report. The global Business Confidence Index is based on a survey of views on revenue, profit trends and expected growth. According to the latest bi-annual Regus Business Confidence Index (BCI) report which tracks the opinions of over 16,000 business managers and owners from 86 countries, business confidence in Brazil has reached 148 points in March followed by India 143 points. The benchmark average is set at 100 to indicate a neutral outlook. However, businesses confidence in India has dipped by 2 index points from September 2011 to 143 in March this year, while during the same period Brazil witnessed a rise of 2 points to 148. At the other extreme is Japan which at 82 points appears to be still suffering from the March 2011 disasters. The global average for the index in the latest report stands at 113, just down one point from the previous report released in September, 2011. For India, the report said, a further mark of optimism is that companies reporting revenue growth increased, reaching 69 percent compared to 52 percent six months ago. However, the companies reporting profit growth stood at 58 percent, suffering a one percent squeeze. "Although untouched by the significant setback between March and September 2011 suffered by other global economies, Indian business confidence has now suffered a slight dip. "In spite of this, the proportion of companies reporting revenue growth has grown although there is a small squeeze in those reporting profits," Regus Regional Vice President (South Asia) Madhusudan Thakur said. "However, in order to grasp the growth opportunities in a sustainable way, businesses globally are still looking to cut overheads without damaging their growth prospects," he added. The report noted, "emerging economies such as Brazil (148), India (143) and China (130) remain the highest scorers, Germany also confirms its place as third most confident nation at 132 in spite of a negative variation on September 2011." Among other countries, the United States rose 15 points to score a 105, while Mexico and South Africa were up seven points and two points respectively at 109 and 117, while UK was down one point to 113. The report said revenue growth at global level remains the same at 51 percent in March 2012 compared to six months ago. Nevertheless, 75 percent of respondents expect revenue growth in the next six months.