Manufacturing growth peps up global confidence for third month

SINGAPORE | WASHINGTON: Confidence in the world economy rose for a third straight month in October as gains in manufacturing and equities added to signs of recovery, a Bloomberg survey of users on six continents showed. The Bloomberg Professional Global Confidence Index increased to a record 61.7 from 58.54 in September. The index exceeded 50 for a third month, which means there were more optimists than pessimists.

���Conditions have reached a point of stability worldwide,��� said Guy LeBas, chief economist and fixed-income strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia, who participated in the survey. ���We���re seeing growth even in parts of the world that were looking dull earlier. The eurozone is coming out of the recession fairly quickly and in decent shape and the US is improving.���

The global equity rally has added about $20 trillion to the value of stocks since this year���s low on March 9 as evidence mounts that the world economy is emerging from its deepest recession since the 1930s. The pace of the recovery may be tempered as stimulus measures undertaken by policy makers fade out and unemployment threatens to continue rising.