“Faint global decoupling hopes now reside solely with China,” Merrill Lynch

Bank of America Securities-Merrill Lynch Research with the help of market research company Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS) conducted a study where they polled fund managers from 6 February to 12 February. A total of 212 fund managers, managing a total of US$599 billion, participated in the global survey while a total of 177 managers, managing US$372 billion, participated in the regional surveys. The survey revealed that optimism over China's growth impacted positively the views on the future of the world economy.

According to the poll now investors are most hopeful about the year ahead since the credit crunch took hold in July 2007. The number of those forecasting further deterioration of the global economy fell to a net 6% as compared with 24% in January. The number of investors expecting lower growth in china within the following 12 months decreased to a net 21% in February against a net 70% in January.

At the same time observers started looking more optimistically at the corporate earnings. The number of the polled who expect deteriorating profits over the coming year was 43% as compared with 63% of those who shared this view in December. Inflation is predicted by 49% while this figure stood for 64% in January and 82% in December.

"Fund manager expectations for Chinese economic growth rose dramatically to their highest levels since 2007, and faint global decoupling hopes now reside solely with China," says Michael Hartnett, chief Global Emerging Markets Equity strategist at Banc of America Securities-Merrill Lynch Research.