According to a latest McKinsey survey, business executives' around the world are less confident today than they were three months ago.
The above mentioned reasons have made a dent in the optimism levels of Indian executives also, however, their chutzpah is still the highest in comparison to corporate honchos from other countries.
The executives' level of morale in overall economic conditions dropped to 54 per cent in June, from its two-year peak of 59 per cent in the previous quarter, representing a decline of nearly 8.5 per cent.
The certainty in national economies dropped even more than the confidence in industries - primarily in India and North America, the survey results showed.
Incidentally, the survey was conducted before the serial train bomb blasts in Mumbai, which is likely to have further depleted the certitude levels.
McKinsey said that a plunge of nearly 30 per cent in the Bombay Stock Exchange, benchmark, Sensex between mid-May and mid-June could be attributed as a major factor behind the drop in the managers' confidence level in India.
The BSE barometer index had hit its second-quarter low while the respondents were answering the survey, it added.
However, those in India remain the world's most confident executives while outperforming the global average by a decent ten points, McKinsey said.
Nonetheless, the executives remained more confident on their hiring plans and more than three quarters of all the companies surveyed said that they would at least maintain their current workforce, while some plan to hire additional employees.
In India, almost three-quarters of the respondents said that they intend to expand their workforce, the survey said while reflecting a continuous rise in confidence about the prospects of industries.
A majority of the Indian entrepreneurs said that their companies plan to increase their workforce in the next six months - around 73 per cent said that their workforce would increase, 20 per cent said it would remain at same level and the rest 7 per cent said that their headcount would decrease in the next six months.
However, globally the hiring plans appeared to be a bit less robust than they were in March - almost as many executives said that their companies plan to keep the workforce at its current size as plan to hire. The survey was conducted in June this year and 3,098 global business executives took part in it.
