YEREVAN (ARKA), March 16– According to information presented in the Grant Thornton International Business Report (IBR) 2010, the percentage of businessmen in Armenia who indicate increased stress level compared to 2009 is at 58 percent.

There appears to be a link between stress levels and GDP. Business owners in mainland China, Vietnam, Mexico, India and Turkey are high on the stress league table and are working in environments, where high growth is expected. Yet at the opposite end of the growth scale, Ireland, Spain and Greece are all high on the scale.

Alex MacBeath, global leader, markets at Grant Thornton International said, “We have businesses at both ends of the GDP growth scale experiencing high stress for very different reasons. In mainland China the pressure is on to keep up with the pace of expansion while in Ireland, for example, the economy is retracting and business owners are worried about how they will keep their business alive.”

Business owners were asked about the major causes of workplace stress.

Not surprisingly, the most common cause during 2009 was the economic climate with 38 percent of respondents globally citing this as one of the major causes of stress. This was followed by pressure on cash flow (26 percent) and competitor activities (21 percent).

Gagik Gyulbudaghyan, Managing Partner of Grant Thornton Armenia, said, “In Armenia business owners feel pressures from different sides: economic climate changes (crisis) of 27 percent, heavy workload (19 percent), competitor activities (17 percent) and pressure on cash flow (14 percent) are the major obstacles Armenian businesses see in their day-to-day business management. The statistics is really very illustrative, and fairly presents the worries that our business owners have. It is worth mentioning that after pressure coming from economic crisis (which is common for all countries). Armenian business owners think, that heavy workload is the second major factor adding stress into their daily management.”

The survey also found a correlation between stress levels and the number of days off taken by an individual in a year. Countries at the top of the stress league are those where business owners, on average, take fewer holidays each year. Armenia, for example, has an increase of 58 percent over the last year in stress level and is in the middle of the holiday league, with business owners on average taking 15 days of holiday during the year.

Gagik Gyulbudaghyan notes, “Here we see vivid evidence, which shows that the stress level is in direct correlation with number of vacation days taken during the year. It proves that taking the time to step away from the business and to get into a different atmosphere, eases stress in business and allows seeing new opportunities in decision making.”