There has been a dramatic increase in the number of Canadian chief financial officers (CFO) who are indicating their companies will increase their investment in developing new products or services, according to the eighth annual American Express/CFO Research Global Business and Spending Monitor survey.

Nearly two-thirds, at 60%, of Canadian CFOs who participated stated more investment in these areas is the plan, while 17% of Canadian CFOs had the same response in last year’s survey.

Canada is the leader of the pack in this area. Hong Kong comes in second with its optimism, with 47% of CFOs saying they intend to increase investment in new products and services in 2015.

“We’re seeing dramatically rising numbers in terms of investment, not only in new products and services, but in spend on sales and marketing activities,” says Paul Parisi, vice president and general manager, global corporate payments for American Express Canada. “CFOs are seeing enough stability to push into new territories, and as such Canada’s leading from a global perspective in some of these areas.”

The finding comes from a study of 565 senior finance and corporate executives located in North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia and Australia who are asked about their thoughts regarding economic growth in their home countries.

Canadian CFOs are also optimistic regarding domestic economic growth, with 73% believing this will be the case for Canada over the next 12 months.

Canadian CFOs also expect there to be a decrease in the unemployment rate across the country, with 37% saying they will hire to match the growth of their revenue over the past year. While 40% of businesses are looking to hire employees with specialized skills, expertise and experience, the survey found that CFOs across Canada believe that there is a shortage of skilled workers (27%) and labour workers (23%).

India takes the lead in economic confidence with 94% of CFOs believing there will be economic growth in their country. The least-confident group is in France with 29% of CFOs stating their country will enjoy positive economic growth in 2015.