SMALL businesses in Singapore are less bullish about the growth outlook compared with six months ago, according to the latest survey by HSBC Singapore.

The bank conducted a survey covering more than 2,700 small businesses across nine countries and territories.

In Singapore, only 32 per cent of the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) surveyed expect faster economic growth over the next six months.

Just six months ago, 73 per cent of SMEs polled expected economic growth to speed up.

Singapore trails behind Vietnam, where 90 per cent of the SMEs polled expect faster growth over the next six months.

But Singapore SMEs are more optimistic than businesses in Hong Kong, where only 26 per cent of those polled expect the economy to grow at a faster pace.

About one-third of the respondents in Singapore plan to raise their capital expenditure (capex) over the next six months.

This was down from the 44 per cent of SMEs polled six months ago who said that they would be increasing capex.

With fears of a global slowdown, only 24 per cent of respondents plan to expand workforce by up to or more than 20 per cent over the next six months.

Last year, about 36 per cent of Singapore SMEs said they plan to hire more workers.

For this year's survey, 74 per cent of the SMEs plan to maintain current staffing levels.

'Clearly, these figures reflect a bit of cautious outlook in Singapore, as compared to the previous survey,' said HSBC Singapore's head of commercial banking, Ms Tan Siew Meng.

The half-yearly survey, conducted in the fourth quarter of last year, covered SMEs in nine economies including China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan and Malaysia.

Companies were asked about their local economic outlook, whether they plan to invest and hire, and for those engaging in cross-border trade, their views about trade volumes with mainland China, the rest of Asia and the rest of the world.