The survey by TNS and Gallup International covered 50,000 people across 54 countries during October and December last year. As much as 51 per cent of the 1,065 Indians polled were hopeful about the year ahead, making the country the seventh most optimistic nation in the world.

The Asia Pacific region is more upbeat than most and is home to nearly half of the worlds top ten most optimistic countries when it comes to outlook for 2008.

Hong Kong, where 71 per cent of the people were optimistic, topped the list. Other countries in the top ten include Kosovo, Colombia, New Zealand, Venezuela, Australia and Sweden, according to the survey.

"In India, 63 per cent believe 2008 will see a rise in the number of unemployed -much higher than the 22 per cent holding out for an improvement in the country's jobless rate," the survey said.

In spite of an apparent pessimism surrounding the issue of unemployment, it does bode well that people have a strong sense of job security (67 per cent in India), as this is obviously influential in terms of future productivity, TNS India Executive Vice-President Gautam Nath said.