Indians most optimistic on economy: McKinsey

Business executives in India are the most optimistic across the world when it comes to their take on the overall economy and inflation over the next six months, according to a survey by McKinsey.According to the Economic and Hiring Outlook survey by McKinsey for the latest quarter, 77% Indian executives said they think the economy would get ‘better’ in six months. This is the highest for the executives from any other region including China, Europe, North America and other Asia-Pacific nations.

The optimism level of 77% in India is considerably higher than the global average of 36% and the Asia-Pacific average of 46%. In China, 65% executives said they expect the country’s economy to improve in the next six months, while it was just 26% in North America. On inflation, 19% Indian executives said they expect it to decline in the next six months, which was the highest for any other region and significantly above the global average of 9% and Asia-Pacific average of 4%. In China, 13% said they expected inflation to moderate.

Just 27% of the executives in India said they expect inflation rate to increase in the next six months, which was the lowest in the world. It was the highest in China at 71%, while the global and Asia-Pacific averages stood at 39% and 52%, respectively.The survey found that around 53% Indians expect inflation to remain unchanged - higher than the global average of 51% and 43% in Asia-Pacific.

"More than half of the respondents expect inflation to remain stable over the next six months. That pattern holds even in India where three months ago, only a fifth of the respondents expected inflation to remain stable, but more than half currently do," McKinsey said.

BS