Fragile economic confidence early in 2021.

South Asia showed a marked improvement in confidence and orders in Q4, after exceptionally weak Q3 survey results

* Accountants and finance professional experts say economic confidence in Q4 2020 stalled and remains fragile heading into 2021, finds the latest ACCA and IMA Global Economic Conditions Survey (GECS).

* Tracking confidence and fear indices, the global survey of more than 3,000 senior professionals with 201 in South Asia including Pakistan reflects the outlook and experiences of the thousands of businesses they advise.

The results for South Asia show:

* South Asia has been hit hard by the pandemic as economies reliant on services and tourism are prevalent in the region.

* The Q4 survey shows signs of recovery with a rise in all the main activity indicators, including orders and employment.

* But any growth revival will be fragile and subject to avoiding renewed COVID infections.

* The 'fear' indices - concern about suppliers and customers going out of business - fell back in Q4: the former remains elevated but the latter is close to its long-run average.

* South Asia recorded the biggest jump in orders in Q4,,recovering after a big drop in the Q3 survey.52 percent of respondents in South Asia expect a significant economic recovery in the second half of this year or later - the highest among the major regions.

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