Optimism among companies declined sharply to the lowest level seen since the survey began five years ago, Global Business Outlook survey from Markit Economics showed Monday.

The number of companies that expect activity to be higher in a year's time exceeded the number expecting a decline by about +28 percent.

Optimism in manufacturing dropped to its lowest since mid-2013 but remained ahead of that seen in services, where confidence about the outlook slumped to the lowest in the five-year survey history.

The survey highlighted a growing list of concerns among companies about the outlook. Key threats were fears of a worsening global economic climate, notably a renewed downturn in the Eurozone and the prospect of higher interest rates in the U.K. and U.S. next year.

Global hiring intentions slid to within a whisker of the all-time low seen in June of last year, deteriorating in the U.S. Japan, the U.K., Eurozone, Russia and Brazil.

Global investment intentions also slumped to a new post-crisis low, dropping the US, UK, Japan and Eurozone.

Companies' expectations of input costs in the year ahead fell to a new survey low in October, the weakest being recorded in the U.S. Likewise, firms' selling price expectations also eased, down to the lowest since early 2010.

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