Global business barometer

By Economist.com

Our interactive business-confidence graphic

DESPITE negative murmurs from the American economy, business leaders remain confident the global economy is on the up, according to the latest quarterly poll of senior managers carried out for The Economist and the Financial Times by the Economist Intelligence Unit, our sister company. Indeed, the balance of respondents who think business conditions are improving has risen to 22 percentage points, up six from the previous quarter. However the cheer is not spread evenly. Managers in the aerospace and defence industry and in the chemicals industry are confident, and increasingly so, but their optimism is not shared by the telecommunications industry, which remains unconvinced the global economy is improving. Nevertheless, although overall optimism has not yet returned to the levels of early 2014, it seems it may be on the way.