Fewer business leaders upbeat about Singapore's economic outlook in 2015

Most are eyeing new markets for growth.

Fewer business leaders are upbeat about Singapore's economic outlook in 2015, a survey by American Express and CFO Research revealed.

Though 70% of business leaders in Singapore expect the country’s economy to continue growing either modestly or substantially, this figure is down markedly from the 82% reported at the start of 2014.

70% of business leaders surveyed in Singapore see a need to increase spending in order to penetrate new markets, 67% will increase spending to improve market capitalization or stock price, 57% will invest more to remain competitive with other countries, and 43% are seeking to improve financial returns to shareholders.

 37% of business leaders plan to spend more on developing new products or services followed by improving business intelligence and analytics (31%), sales and marketing (30%) and improving production process efficiency (30%).