Business leaders round the world are now almost as optimistic about the outlook for their companies as they were just before the financial crisis erupted, according to a survey released on Tuesday from PwC, the audit and consultancy group.

Out of some 1,201 chief executive officers across the world, 48 per cent said they were “very confident” about their company’s growth prospects over the next 12 months – while 88 per cent said they had at least “some” confidence in the outlook, PwC said.

That marks a sharp increase from the pattern in 2009, or just after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, when just 21 per cent of global CEOs were “very confident”. In 2007, at the peak of the credit bubble, the proportion of CEOs who were “very confident” was 52 per cent.