London, Mar 19 (IANS): The latest global business outlook survey released by Markit revealed rising business confidence pointing to an economic upturn across the world.

Confidence among businesses across the world has revived from the post-financial-crisis low seen in the latter half of 2012, with expectations of revenue, new business, and business activity all rising to their highest since the beginning of last year.

The latest Markit Global Outlook Survey drew statistics from 11,000 companies across the world, and showed the number of companies expecting their business activity to rise over the next 12 months exceeded those expecting a decline by 39 percent.

This is an improvement from the figure of 30 percent in the last survey in October.

The upturn was seen across all developed nations with Japan and the Eurozone seeing the largest increase in confidence.

Germany led the way in the Eurozone, with businesses in Italy and Spain also recording renewed optimism.

Among the emerging economies of the BRICS nations, only China saw an improvement in business mood, with companies more optimistic than at any time for two years.

It was in the US, however, where the highest levels of business optimism among any developed nation were found.

Markit chief economist Chris Williamson told Xinhua Monday: "We had a very downbeat final quarter of 2012. In the United States, the first quarter should see an upturn. There are signs that businesses are getting more confident -- this survey indicates that manufacturers and service sector companies are feeling more upbeat about the future."

Williamson added: "We are seeing mixed retail data. Consumers seem to be holding up fairly resiliently in the face of tax hikes and other fiscal pressures, so we are over the worst in the US. The fiscal cliff did not happen; there was a lot of scare-mongering going on. The scene is set for 2013 to be a better year than 2012."