Asian CEO confidence drops to its lowest in over a year

Big time plunge since October 2013.

Reflecting slowing growth in the shifting Chinese economy and plunging commodity prices worldwide, the YPO Global Pulse Confidence Index for Asia fell to its lowest level since October 2013.

According to a release from YPO, registering 62.2 in the January 2015 survey of CEOs, the regional reading remains in optimistic territory and is in line with the global composite at 62.5.

In China, the region's largest economy, confidence declined for the fourth consecutive quarter, with the index losing 3.2 points to land at 59.7

"Decelerating growth in China and uncertainty around the global economic recovery, especially in Europe, combined with the sell-off in crude oil and other commodities, is causing business leaders in the region to bake a bit more caution into their forecasts," said Raymond Tong, chief operating officer of Hong Kong Maxim's Group and a member of YPO's Pearl River Delta Chapter.

Here's more from YPO:

"But on the whole, confidence levels across the region are solid, indicating that CEOs expect economic expansion to continue, albeit at a bit more prudent rate."

The decrease in confidence in Asia was most pronounced in the ASEAN economies (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam), whose composite index dropped 6.4 points to 56.1 - its lowest reading since the survey began in 2009.

In Japan, confidence remained essentially unchanged from the third quarter, but the reading of 57.3 is more than 8 points lower than this time last year. Sentiment among CEOs in India declined 2.8 points to 68.3 but remains firmly optimistic.

YPO Global Pulse Confidence Index - The quarterly electronic survey, conducted in the first two weeks of January, gathered answers from 2,790 chief executive officers across the globe, including 269 in Asia.