Abu Dhabi, May 4 (IANS/WAM) The United Arab Emirates leads the list of countries in the latest HSBC Trade Confidence Index.

According to the index, business sentiment globally showed an overall positive outlook with an average global reading of 116 on a scale of 0 to 200, with a reading of 100 regarded as neutral. Emerging markets were more optimistic - scoring an average of 122 points - over developed markets, which had an average score of 106 points.

The UAE scored 134 in the index - the highest score among all countries surveyed.

The HSBC Trade Confidence Index is an opinion survey covering over 5,100 importers and exporters in 17 countries - including key economies in the Asia-Pacific region, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Mexico, the UK and the US.

"The latest HSBC Trade Confidence Index is showing growing confidence in the state of global and regional trade, indicating that exporters and importers might be seeing the start of an economic recovery," said Simon Cooper, CEO of HSBC Middle East.