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.

The Economist/FT global business barometer is a survey conducted four times a year by the Economist Intelligence Unit in order to gauge trends in business confidence. Based on the responses of almost 1,500 senior executives, it measures overall confidence by looking at the balance of those who think global business conditions will improve over the next six months against those who expect them to worsen. Our interactive barometer allows you to track business sentiment over time. You can look at the results by region or industry. The "in focus" section highlights responses to topical supplementary questions each quarter. Note: Percentages may not add to 100 due to rounding.