A survey of financial advisors in Asia, the Middle East and Europe shows optimism about the global economy fell in Q1 2015 from a year before - albeit with some notable regional variations.

Advisors have turned less optimistic about the global economy in the first three months of 2015 from a year ago, with the United Arab Emirates community showing the largest drop in sentiment about the local situation, a survey by Old Mutual Wealth showed.

Asked about their views on their local economies, Hong Kong financial advisors ranked their city at 5.8 on a scale up to 10, a fall of 12.1 per cent year-on-year; in the United Arab Emirates, they gave their economy a grade of 6.5 – the joint highest level with the UK – but that represented a 12.2 per cent fall from a year ago. In Singapore, advisors gave their local economy a rating of 6.4, also down from a year earlier.

Asked about the global economy, Singaporean advisors are the gloomiest, giving it a grade of 5.7, a fall of 14.9 per cent; the most optimistic view came from the UAE, with advisors giving the global economy a 6.4 figure, unchanged on a year before. The lowest figure of 5.8 came from Asia as a whole and Europe (ex-UK), the survey found.

The firm surveyed 489 advisors across the jurisdictions in which it operates – Hong Kong, Singapore, the UAE, the UK and wider Europe – for the research throughout the first quarter of 2015.

“Looking at the wider economic picture you can understand why confidence has faltered slightly. Most economies seem to have some challenges, including the continuing uncertainty in Europe, the uncertainty inherent in the general election in the UK, Chinese economic growth slowing to its lowest pace since 1990, and the IMF downgrading its global economic growth forecast by 0.3 per cent to 3.5 per cent,” Dean Bowden, investment solutions expert, Old Mutual Wealth, said.

“In-between the negative headlines there are signs of positivity, such as QE finally being rolled out in Europe and Chinese growth, whilst slowing, is still expected to be over 5 per cent, suggesting global growth is not collapsing,” Bowden added.