China casts shadow on Manila summit

Manila - Survey shows only 28% business leaders in Asia-Pacific are confident on increasing revenues.

Business leaders in the Asia-Pacific are losing confidence in their revenue prospects because of China's cooling economy and perceived higher risks in emerging markets, a survey released on Monday showed.
Just 28 per cent of businessmen with investments in Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) economies said they were "very confident" revenues would increase in the next 12 months, PricewaterhouseCoopers said as it released the survey.
That was down from 46 per cent last year and the lowest business confidence score since 2012, when the survey was first carried out.
This year's study polled 800 CEOs, PwC said.
"Slowing demand from China is moderating expectations across industries and geographies. More broadly, growth risks continue to tilt towards emerging markets," the report said.
"After a year of historic foreign direct investments into developing Asian economies, CEOs have become hypersensitive to financial market signals."
China's gross domestic product grew 7.3 per cent last year, the slowest expansion since 1990. In the July to September period this year, growth was 6.9 per cent, the slowest in six years, according to government data. An impending interest rate increase and leadership change next year in the United States, as well as elections scheduled in the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan and Peru, were adding to investors' worries, the PwC report said.
The Apec, which groups 21 economies, including China, the United States and Russia, aims to foster open markets among its members.
US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping will be manoeuvering for position to sell their respective Asian strategies at the Apec forum. Obama can tout the Trans-Pacific Partnership among the successes of his "rebalance to Asia."
Xi is fresh from state visits to the UK, Singapore and Vietnam, plus the first meeting with a Taiwanese leader in seven decades.
He'll be pushing for a bigger role on the world stage and flagging achievements like the establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the expectation it will soon achieve reserve currency status for the yuan.