The survey conducted by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) also rated Malawi performing well in early 2012 and maintaining confidence.
According to the report, the economic recovery has slowed down again in early 2012 but Nigeria and some countries in Africa remain the most confident of the world's regions.
The report noted that Africa has long been the most confident of the regions and despite a setback in the second quarter of 2012 it has held on to this distinction, with 34 per cent of respondents reporting confidence gains, down from 39 per cent three months earlier.
"Respondents here are also more optimistic about the state of the global economy than in most of the world. Forty five per cent (down from 54 per cent) believe that the global recovery is on track. Statistically speaking, the actual drop in economic performance implied by these figures is very small," the report said.
The report noted that in Africa, overall, there has been some improvement in business conditions on the ground in the areas of business revenues which is improving while capital spending has consistently increased over the last three quarters and lay-offs are becoming less common, although job creation is still coming in fits and starts.
Meanwhile, the study has cautioned that growth across the world's most developed economies has stalled once again and that the global economy is as fragile as it has ever been in the last three years.
The global survey of 2,700 professional accountants, now well into its third year, suggests that hints of a stronger recovery in early 2012 were mostly down to misplaced optimism and that most of the gains made at the time have since been reversed.
According to the report, China's slowing economy has dominated the survey findings this quarter, although ACCA and IMA stressed that there are few signs of the hard landing many commentators had feared.
Survey Editor and Senior Economic Analyst with ACCA, Manos Schizas, said: "The point now is to see how far and how fast the Chinese slowdown will travel. Our members in Africa tend to feel any fallout from Asia fairly quickly and there could be implications for other markets which trade with China."
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