Firms' sentiment up in Q415, but is expected to slide back down

Singapore

BUSINESSES held their chin up a bit higher in the last quarter of 2015, according to the quarterly Business Times-UniSIM Business Climate survey.

Although they were slightly more optimistic about business prospects in Q4 when compared to a quarter earlier, this is unlikely to survive the deluge of bad news since the start of 2016, observers noted.

The slight sentiment uptick will probably only be temporary, they said, as it stands in contrast to the much darker mood in the past few weeks.

Of the 182 firms that were polled between mid-December last year to mid-January this year, 68 per cent think that the economy over the next six months will fare worse.…