SMALL and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) here are more gloomy about the economic outlook than their counterparts across Asia-Pacific, according to the fifth UPS Asia Business Monitor.

The survey questioned 1,200 decision makers working within SMEs from 12 Asia-Pacific markets in January and February.

Some 87 per cent of the 100 Singapore SMEs probed felt that there would be a decline in economic growth this year, compared with 65 per cent regionally.

Looking to their company's prospects, 57 per cent felt that they would be worse than last year, compared with 41 per cent regionally.

Ms Gillian Sim, managing director of UPS Singapore, said: 'A reason why Singapore SMEs could be more pessmistic about the economic outlook is due to the fact that we are a small country, and we have no choice but to export and rely largely on international trade.'

The survey also looked at workforce projections for 2009.

Regionally, 22 per cent of SMEs said they would be increasing their workforce this year, 65 per cent said there would be no changes, and 15 per cent said they would be retrenching workers.

For SMEs here, just 12 per cent said that they would be expanding their workforce, 70 per cent projected no changes, while 18 per cent would be axing jobs.

The survey also found that regional and Singapore SMEs had markedly different views on the growing role of China.

Regionally, 46 per cent saw the growing predominance of China to be a boost to business in their own country, 21 per cent saw it as a threat, and 23 per cent viewed it as both a threat and a boost.

In Singapore, however, 75 per cent saw it as a boost, and only 6 per cent perceived it to be a threat.

The percentage of Singapore SMEs viewing China's growth favourably has been steadily increasing over the years. In 2007, 53 per cent thought China would boost their business, and last year, that figure rose to 63 per cent.