By DPA
Hong Kong : People in Hong Kong are the most optimistic in the world about the prospects for 2008 while those in Taiwan are the region’s gloomiest, according to a survey Tuesday.
Seventy-one percent of people in Hong Kong believe 2008 will be better than 2007, the highest percentage among 54 countries and regions surveyed worldwide by market research groups TNS and Gallup.
Fifty-eight percent of Hong Kong people interviewed said they expected improved economic prosperity in 2008, the highest percentage regionally followed by 45 percent of respondents in India and 32 percent of respondents in Malaysia.
The second most optimistic place globally was Kosovo where 68 percent expect a brighter year ahead followed by Colombia (66 percent), New Zealand (57 percent) and Venezuela (53 percent).
The remainder of the worldwide top 10 was made up by Australia (53 percent), Sweden (51 percent), India (51 percent), Canada (50 percent) and Argentina (49 percent).
Regionally, 47 percent of Thais said they expected 2008 to be better than 2007, compared to 37 percent of Malaysians, 31 percent of people in the Philippines and 29 percent of Pakistanis.
Only 21 percent of Indonesians and Japanese said they expected a brighter new year but the most pessimistic territory in the region was Taiwan where only 19 percent said things would be better in 2008.
Hong Kong’s sunny outlook on the New Year appears to be based on its booming economy that has seen the Hang Seng Index shoot up by 40 percent in the past year.
The city of 6.9 million will host the equestrian events of the Beijing Olympics in August 2008 and is also expected to continue to benefit from the continuing economic expansion in China, which was not included in the poll.
Thomas Isaac, director of research at TNS, said Hong Kong people felt prosperous and secure in their jobs, helping them to top the annual global optimism poll for the first time since 2003.
Explaining the former British colony’s high score, he said: “Real GDP increased by an annualised rate of 6.1 percent in the nine months up to September. Total exports grew by a strong 9.6 percent on a yearly basis in the 10 months up to October.
“Unemployment fell to 3.9 percent between August and October and the Hong Kong stock market also performed exceptionally throughout most of the year.”
More than 50,000 people globally and 10,000 people regionally were interviewed for the annual survey that was conducted between October and December 2007.