The latest Grant Thornton International Business Report for the July-September quarter has placed India second on the global scale for business optimism. The report attributed the rise to the new Goods and Services Tax regime and other policy reforms, reported PTI. In the last quarter, India was at the No. 3 spot.

"The improvement in the optimism ranking in the recent past clearly reflects that the reform agenda of the government and its efforts on improving the climate for doing business are having an impact," said Grant Thornton India LLP Partner – India Leadership Team Harish HV. According to him, the recent measures to roll out the single tax regime will further push business optimism.

India is flanked by Indonesia in the first spot and Philippines coming in third. The two parameters that helped India climb up the rankings were rise of employment expectations and profitability expectations. India ranks first on the employment expectation parameter.

On regulations and red tape that hinder growth, the country's ranking dropped from second to fourth. In the last quarter, 64% respondents felt that India’s growth was affected by regulations. However, now only 59% believe so.

The only parameter in which India did not fare well was revenue expectations. Here, India dropped to third position from the top in the last quarter. However, 85% of respondents voted in favour of increasing revenue. Besides, at least 68% respondents believe that there will be an upsurge in the selling prices. "Political events such as Brexit and the United States presidential election rattle the global economy and test the resilience and elasticity of businesses worldwide. In general, businesses do not like uncertainty, and that is what is happening," Grant Thornton Global CEO Ed Nasbaum said.

Grant Thornton is a global consultancy company that prepares the report based on the results of a survey of 2,500 businesses across 36 economies.