By Joyce Hooi

FOR once, Singapore has come in 18th on a list - and will be happy to stay there.

Local owners of privately held firms ranked a middling 18th on a stress index in Grant Thornton's International Business Report 2010, which included 36 countries.

45 per cent of private business owners here reported being under more stress in 2009 than 2008, against a global average of 56 per cent who felt the same way, according to a survey in the report that was carried out late last year.

29 per cent of respondents here blamed their greater stress on a 'heavy workload', while 23 per cent fingered the 'economic climate' as the cause.

On the global front, the state of the economy took pole position with 38 per cent of respondents, followed by worries over cash flow with 26 per cent.

China topped the stress list, with 76 per cent of business owners feeling the strain of 2009, followed by Mexico and Turkey with 74 and 72 per cent respectively.

'While employees may place more importance on personal elements such as their work-life balance, business leaders feel pressures from all sides,' said Aw Eng Hai, a partner at Foo Kon Tan Grant Thornton.

'Combating recession or keeping up with growth are both equally stressful for business leaders and for different reasons, and it is no surprise that privately held business owners are feeling more stressed.'

Apart from its low-ish ranking on the stress index, Singapore was also in the happy position of being in the quadrant of countries with high gross domestic product (GDP) growth and relatively low stress levels for business owners, with places like Thailand and Hong Kong.

Singapore's position in the GDP-stress quadrant bucked the trend spotted in the report, where GDP growth that was too high or too low could drive up blood pressures.

'Businesses at both ends of the GDP scale are experiencing high stress for very different reasons,' the report stated. 'In mainland China, the pressure is on to keep up with the pace of expansion while in Ireland, the economy is retracting and business owners are worried about how they will keep their business alive.'

62 per cent of Irish businessmen reported increased stress in 2009.

There is also something to be said for taking the day off. Finland, Denmark and Sweden, which occupied the three bottom-most spots on the stress index - with 33 per cent, 25 per cent and 23 per cent businessmen feeling more stress, respectively - topped the list for the number of holidays taken last year.

Business owners in Denmark and Finland took 23 days off last year, while those in Sweden took 22, excluding public holidays; in contrast, their Singaporean counterparts took only 12 days off.

And their frazzled peers in China? A measly nine days.

This article was first published in The Business Times.