Jane Lai

    ANY signs of a recovery in the global economy had disappeared, according to a survey of finance professionals worldwide released by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) on Monday.

    U.K.-based ACCA invited 2,873 finance professionals to take part in the Global Economic Conditions Survey between Aug. 19 and Sept. 7. It is one of the largest and fastest-growing global accountancy bodies with 147,000 members and 424,000 students in 170 countries.

    As more economies are embroiled in the European sovereign debt crisis, three quarters of the surveyed participants thought global economic conditions were deteriorating or stagnating. Nearly half had lost confidence in the future of their own organizations, while 45 percent thought their governments were not dealing correctly with current economic challenges.

    Manos Schizas, senior policy adviser with ACCA and survey editor, said: “The weakening in demand and deteriorating access to finance reported by accountants were not sharp enough to justify the strong negative sentiment which they expressed. But after taking into account the effects that fear will have on their views, the evidence still points to falling economic activity in developed nations and a sharp slowdown in emerging economies.

    The drop in confidence could be seen as a result of people waking up to trends which have been accumulating for years. Globally, demand has proven to be too weak to sustain reliable growth, investment refuses to pick up and inflation remains high. And on top of everything else, it is still unclear whether the sovereign debt crisis in Europe can be contained, or indeed what it will mean if it cannot,” he said.

    In the Asia-Pacific region, which once led the world into recovery but has been steadily falling for more than a year, confidence levels are now comparable to, if not lower than, those in Europe. Economies undertaking more international trade appear to be the worst hit, ACCA said.

    Respondents in China, particularly in Hong Kong, have been affected by the bleak economic outlook. More than half from the Chinese Mainland and Hong Kong reported a loss of confidence in the prospects of their own organizations. Over two thirds of the combined sample of more than 200 accountants believed that global economic conditions were deteriorating or stagnating, almost double the percentage three months ago.

    Small and open economies such as Hong Kong are particularly vulnerable to the coming downturn. Similar results have emerged across the wider region, with respondents in Singapore also losing confidence rapidly, ACCA said.