Ray of light: Confidence in global economic recovery remains near record high

Posted Dec 16th 2009 4:00PM by Joseph Lazzaro
Filed under: International Markets, Good news

More modest goods on the global economic front as confidence in the world economy held near a record high, according to a new Bloomberg News survey.

The Bloomberg Professional Global Confidence Index (BPGCI) fell to 58.9 in December from 60.3 in November, but that's still near the record high of 61.7 reached in October, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday. Further, the index remained above 50 for the fifth consecutive month. Readings above 50 mean there were more optimists than pessimists in the survey.

By region, U.S. respondents' confidence in the world's largest economy rose to 47.7 December from 46.9 in November. Western Europeans' confidence in their economy rose to 50.9 in December from 47.7, and Asia's rose to 76.2 from 76.0. However, Japan's dropped to 29.5 from 29.9.

The survey of 1,934 Bloomberg users was conducted December 7-11.

Economic Analysis: Another encouraging sign for the global economic expansion. Further, although the BPGCI is a relatively new index, I've liked it from the start, due to the insights it provides regarding the mood/stance/attitudes of institutional investors: many Bloomberg users are institutional investors -- the key players in financial markets.

Tags: BPGCI, global recovery, GlobalRecovery