Hong Kong (dpa) - People in Hong Kong are the most optimistic in the world about the prospects for 2008 while people in Taiwan are the region's gloomiest, according to a survey Tuesday.
Seventy-one per cent 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.
The second most optimistic place globally was Kosovo where 68 per cent expect a brighter year ahead followed by Colombia (66 per cent), New Zealand (57 per cent) and Venezuela (53 per cent).
The remainder of the worldwide top 10 was made up by Australia (53 per cent), Sweden (51 per cent), India (51 per cent), Canada (50 per cent) and Argentina (49 per cent).
Regionally, 47 per cent of Thais said they expected 2008 to be better than 2007, compared to 37 per cent of Malaysians, 31 per cent of people in the Philippines and 29 per cent of Pakistanis.
Only 21 per cent of Indonesians and Japanese said they expected a brighter new year but the most pessimistic territory in the region was Taiwan where only 19 per cent said things would be better in 2008.
Hong Kong's sunny outlook on the New Year appears to be based on its booming economy which has seen the Hang Seng Index shoot up by 40 per cent 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.
Fifty-eight per cent of Hong Kong people interviewed said they expected improved economic prosperity in 2008, the highest percentage regionally followed by 45 per cent of respondents in India and 32 per cent of respondents in Malaysia.
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 per cent in the nine months up to September. Total exports grew by a strong 9.6 per cent on a yearly basis in the 10 months up to October.
"Unemployment fell to 3.9 per cent 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 which was conducted between October and December 2007.
12:28 Jan 01, 2008
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