NZ: Business confidence picked up at the end of 2018 - Westpac

Michael Gordon, research analyst at Westpac, points out that New Zealand’s business confidence improved in December, with general business sentiment and own-activity expectations rising to their highest levels since April.

Key Quotes

“Surveyed confidence is still at historically low levels, and it remains out of step with the economy’s recent performance, where we’ve seen continued modest growth.”

“Confidence was higher across most of the broad industry groups, with the exception of agriculture. The latter may reflect the further downgrade to Fonterra’s milk price forecast earlier this month.”