The good news is, business confidence is returning as the fog of trade uncertainty lifts. What’s revealed as it clears, though, is a landscape that’s more expensive and harder to navigate.
Those are among the takeaways in a survey released Tuesday by HSBC, the London-based bank that’s among the world’s leading providers of trade financing.
The poll, taken from 6,750 business people in 17 economies from Oct 6-21, offers a useful comparison to a similar survey conducted in late April and early May — not long after President Donald Trump’s rollout of so-called reciprocal tariffs plunged the global trading system ...