A report published today by the Economist Intelligence Unit (disclaimer: The Economist is a Speed client) finds UK SMEs upbeat about their ability to rebound when the economy improves.

65% expect their company’s market share to have increased by the time the recession ends, and 73% expect revenues to have increased.

This optimism is somewhat surprising-and perhaps overly inflated-given respondents’ sobering views on the short term: only 37% of respondents expect their companies to do better this year than last.

This is in line with Economist Intelligence Unit forecasts, which predict a contraction of global GDP in 2009 of 1.8%, and only a modest expansion of 1.9% in 2010.

The report ‘Understanding growth priorities at small and medium-sized businesses’ quizzed more than 300 executives and is sponsored by Verio.