Confidence is up, America is still number one ahead of China, and globalization has done very little to solve global inequality, are some of the findings in PwC’s 20th global CEO survey. The survey, launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos, a super-schmooze of the world’s global political and business elite, took responses from 1379 CEOs globally.

Bob Moritz, global chairman, PwC, commented: “Despite a tumultuous 2016, CEO confidence is moving back up – albeit slowly and still a long way from the levels we saw back in 2007. But there are signs of optimism right across the globe.”

Globally, 38% of CEOs reported being very confident about their company’s 12-month revenue growth, up from 35% last year. Confidence was also up in China, from 24% to 35%; similar patterns were seen in the US and UK. However, the Asean region (including Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam), saw a decrease in confidence from 38% last year, to 32% this year.

When CEOs in the Asia Pacific region were asked about what their major concerns were, most responded that over-regulation, uncertain economic growth, availability of key skills, and speed of technological change, were the main threats to their organisation’s growth prospects.

When asked: “which three countries, are most important for your organisation’s growth over the next 12 months?”, America consistently pipped China as being the most important, being considered important by all respondents 43% of the time, over China’s 33%. When narrowing the responses to just the Asia Pacific region, the USA still beat-out China at 56% to 38%.

When asked about the impact of globalization, only 51% of CEOs thought it had done anything to help the gap between the rich and poor, and 44% thought that it had done nothing to help. Similarly, only 59% thought it had done anything to help the integrity of the global tax systems, whilst 35% thought it had done nothing to help.