The question asked of chief executives covered a much narrower issue — whether they were very confident that their own company’s revenue would grow over the next 12 months.

In the United States, where recession fears have been rising, 36 percent of the executives said they were very confident, a percentage that exceeded the figures for Japan, France and Italy.

By contrast, the figures exceeded 70 percent in Mexico, Russia and China. In India, the number was 90 percent.

The confidence of emerging markets was shown in sessions at the forum this week, as participants from India proclaimed that their momentum could carry them past any downturn in the United States.

Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You will receive emails containing news content , updates and promotions from The New York Times. You may opt-out at any time. You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters.

One Chinese speaker said a recession in the United States might bring China’s growth down to 9 percent a year, from the 10 to 11 percent he expected otherwise.

“A lot of people are going to be very shocked” if a recession in the United States does have a major impact on Asia, said Steven S. Roach, the chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, who has long been bullish on the region. But he also said he expected the American downturn to have a substantial impact in Asia.

The poll of individuals also asked whether they agreed with certain statements about business leaders, and found a wide variety of opinions.

Business leaders were generally viewed as more competent than political leaders, but they were also seen as dishonest by many.

Advertisement Continue reading the main story

The starkest view was in Germany, where only 6 percent thought the business leaders were not competent and capable, but 71 percent thought they were dishonest. In the United States, 49 percent said they thought business executives were dishonest, while 25 percent did not think they were competent.

The country with the highest regard for its business leaders appears to be Britain, where only 19 percent viewed them as dishonest, and 13 percent doubted their competence.

But perhaps some people do not think it is necessary to have competent business executives for a country to prosper. Nigeria, the country where 78 percent of the public expect the next generation to be more prosperous, had 40 percent of its respondents say business leaders were not competent. That was the most of any of the countries listed in the accompanying charts.