ONLY a third of chief executive officers across the Asia-Pacific region are confident their businesses will grow over the next 12 months.
A PricewaterhouseCoopers survey of 376 of the region's top business bosses show there's concerns about the prospects of oil price spikes, another US recession, slowing growth in China and more turbulence in the eurozone.
Many are also worried about the possibility of cyber attacks, pandemics and natural disasters.
Just 36 per cent of the CEOs surveyed between June and August across 40 countries said they were "very confident" revenue would grow in the coming year.
But the survey - released as part of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit that precedes this weekend's leaders meeting at Vladivostok in Russia - found business leaders were more optimistic about the longer term outlook.
Fifty-four per cent were very confident of growth over the next three to five years.
And 40 per cent said they planned to expand their workforce by at least five per cent in the same period.
More than 40 per cent of CEOs ranked China as the most important growth driver for their company - meaning a slump in Chinese growth would have a big effect.
In contrast, just 20 per cent of CEOs named the US as their primary growth driver.
Even though the eurozone crisis had highlighted the risks associated with economic integration, most Asia-Pacific CEOs believed the drive towards deeper economic and commercial links was on track, or even accelerating.
