More than half of all business professionals in two financial hubs in Asia are viewing the results of the U.S. election in a positive light, according to a survey conducted two weeks after Donald Trump emerged as the victor.
The survey, conducted in the financial districts of Hong Kong and Shanghai by deVere Group, an international financial consultancy, found that 55% of the over 650 people interviewed for the study think that a Trump presidency will be positive for the global economy.
Even so, over two thirds of those interviewed were surprised by the result of the election, with 32% saying they were not surprised that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would lose out to the businessman.
“Whilst many of those surveyed may hold wildly different political views to the President-Elect, the consensus is mainly positive about the Donald Trump presidency,” said Doug Tucker, the East Asia head of deVere Group, which conducted the survey.
When asked about the effects the election’s results would have on their assets in the medium term, two thirds of all respondents said that they foresee a positive effect, while 34% saying that their assets would be negatively impacted.
The survey found that a majority sees the President-Elect’s proposed tax policies negatively, with 58% of survey respondents saying that they didn’t agree overall with it.
Wang Jianlin, China’s richest man and chairman of Dalian Wanda Group, suggested a Trump administration could be good for the economy.
“Can a businessman be better than a career politician?” he told Reuters. “We have to give him a chance.”
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The financial market’s reaction to the results of the U.S. presidential election has evolved in the three weeks since the first projections of a Donald Trump victory began rolling in. The jittery markets plunged in the days after Nov. 8, wiping out a trillion dollars in the bond market along the way.
But public opinion of Trump appeared to change (according to one poll) as he shifted gears into transition mode, as did the direction of the stock markets. Even critics from the GOP who had blasted the reality TV star during the election campaign have since emerged in the running for cabinet positions.
