Business mood rallies
Profit expectations remain low, but are rising.
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Business confidence is on the rise.
The latest National Bank survey, released today, shows a net +18 % for firms expect the economy to improve in the year ahead and – more importantly – their expectations for their own activity are positive by 28%, up from last month’s 26%.
The crucial profit expectations remain low but they are still – just – positive, and are up slightly on last month, form +2% to +4%.
An even more significant indicator, investment intentions, is up to +12%, which is an increase of 3% on last month and is well above the average.
Employment intentions, though, are down. From +10% to +5% intending to make on more staff over the coming year.
The overall trend of a small improvement in most aspects of the survey is a good one when the backdrop of further global economic bad news is considered, said National Bank chief economist Cameron Bagrie.
“It’s not what we would call a convincing bounce…However, after three months of steady moves lower in business sentiment, any movement to buck the emerging downward trend is welcome.”
“All-in-all, November’s results are a real hodge-podge of pluses and minuses but with some relative respectability. Given the current state of the global economy, respectability is not a bad reading to achieve.”
Rob Hosking
Mon, 28 Nov 2011
Mon, 28 Nov 2011
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Business mood rallies
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