NZ: Businesses are eying the pause button – ANZ

Businesses are eying the pause button according to the ANZ Business Outlook Survey as a net 0% of businesses are optimistic about the year ahead, which happens to be the lowest level since September 2015, explains Cameron Bagrie, Chief Economist at ANZ.

Key Quotes

 “There is good news still. 

• Adjusting for seasonality, business confidence is still positive. While it fell from a net 29% to a net 14%, that’s still reasonable. 
• Businesses are still uniformly positive about their own prospects, are still planning to hire and invest, and survey indicators are by-and-large still elevated in level terms.

“However, there were still relatively broad-based declines on the month.” 

• A net 30% of businesses expect better times ahead for their own business, down 8 points on August. Adjusting for seasonality, firms’ own activity expectations fell from +45 to +36. 
• A net 13% of firms are expecting to lift investment, down from +23. 
• Employment intentions pulled back from +17 to +15. 
• Profit expectations fell from +29 to +18.
• Export intentions eased from +27 to +25. 
• Residential construction intentions dropped from +36 to +18. Commercial construction intentions fell from +29 to +18. 
• Firms’ pricing intentions were unchanged at +21. Inflation expectations rebounded from 1.9% to 2%. 
• A net 26% of businesses expect it to be tougher to get credit.”