Korean CEOs Have Least Positive Economic Outlook

In a survey of 314 CEOs from South Korea, China and Japan, Korean business leaders had the most negative opinion of where the economy was headed – both domestically and globally. This is according to the cross-border CEO survey by Maeil Business Newspaper, Nikkei Asian Review and the Global Times, which found that 26 percent of Korean CEOs were assuming that their local and the global economy would deteriorate sharply or steadily in the future.

CEOs were most optimistic in China, where only 12 percent thought that the global economy would go downhill and only 7 percent assumed the same about their local economy.

South Korea has been experiencing the current global economic downturn more severely than many other countries. Its exports have been down and GDP growth stayed behind expectations recently. In October, price levels in the country even slipped into deflation territory for the first time.