India leads the world in economic confidence: AmEx report

India continues to lead the world in economic confidence as Indian CFOs expect moderate growth driven by investments in expanding domestic markets and exports.

"India is leading the way in terms of both business confidence and investments," said Saru Kaushal, country head, global corporate payments, American Express in a statement.

However, she stated that optimising cash flow and using it judiciously to grow and protect the business was the focus and reducing risk exposure by concentrating on domestic markets along with increased sales and marketing, risk management, security and production activities.

According to the ninth annual Global Business and Spending Monitor by American Express and CFO Research, Indian executives are the most confident lot on growth plans compared to their international counterparts and 90 percent of the respondents felt that growth will depend on exports.

The survey has noted 80 percent Indian respondents citing prevailing economic and political uncertainty in others countries may increase their focus on the domestic market.

"This may be the reason that 77 percent of the Indian leaders are looking to expand business activities locally including sourcing, distribution, production and/or outsourcing," said the statement.

Interestingly, 100 percent of the Indian executives polled said they will look at increasing their spending and investment to drive top line and bottom line while 80 percent respondents expect spending to escalate by 10 percent and 50 percent respondents by 15 percent.

However, there was a decline in the number of executive expecting aggressive spending.

Another crucial aspect highlighted by the report was the increased spending on IT to secure business and improve customer service.

"In a global business environment that is now knit together with technology, executives are more keenly aware of the business risks that come from inadequate information security, and they are particularly reluctant to skimp on technology spending," said the statement.