Singapore firms named Asia’s most pessimistic for the third quarter in a row

Blame it on the expected interest rate hike.

Singapore firms once again gained the dubious distinction of having Asia's most pessimistic outlook, the Thomson Reuters/INSEAD Asia Business Sentiment Survey showed today.

Local firms registered a reading of 50 for the first quarter of 2015, booking the least positive outlook for the third quarter in a row across the 11 surveyed countries in the region.

The pessimism is due to the widely-expected interest rate hike by the U.S. Fed, its first hike in almost a decade.

Local banks are likely to match the hike, which could happen as early as June. This will make mortgages expensive and pull down demand for property.

"There is significant risk as people may have different interpretations of movements in interest rates in a way that can cause dramatic changes in financial markets," said Antonio Fatas, a Singapore-based economics professor at INSEAD.

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