The UOB survey, conducted from December 2023 to mid-January 2024 among 4,050 enterprises in China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, found that high inflation was the number 1 problem for Asian companies last year.
32% of respondents said that high inflation had a negative impact on their business, and another 32% of respondents reported that they faced an increase in operating costs. Meanwhile, 24% of respondents warned that their business was affected by rising labor costs. Many companies (27% of respondents) also indicated that the general economic downturn had a negative impact on their business. High interest rates were also a problem for Asian companies - 23% of respondents reported this.
As for the business environment in 2023, about 35% of respondents said that it had deteriorated compared to 2022. 30% of companies said that reducing business costs will be their top priority in the next one to three years. Meanwhile, more than 80% of respondents said they were interested in overseas expansion as they thought to increase revenue and boost profitability.