Business confidence flat - ANZ survey

The index has been largely unchanged for three months now. Photo / File

Business confidence was flat in the latest ANZ Business Outlook (ANZBO) survey for April.

The headline confidence reading from the survey was a -43.8, marginally worse than the -43.4 registered in March.

The index has been largely unchanged for three months now.

There was some good news on the inflation front with cost, pricing and overall inflation expectations all decreasing – although all three remain elevated.Profit expectations also took a further hit as the squeeze comes on the economy.

Interest rate implications

ANZ chief economist Sharon Zollner said the overall message for the Reserve Bank of New Zealand – Te Putea Mātua (RBNZ) from the survey would be that they were “on track”.

”The RBNZ will be encouraged to see the ongoing fall in the inflation indicators in the survey. While there’s still a way to go, inflation is set to continue easing over the year ahead, as they and we are forecasting.

”It’s important to note that the data does not represent a ‘surprise’ for the RBNZ; rather, it’s what they will be expecting to see if their forecasts are to come to fruition, with the OCR able to top out shortly.”

There are risks on both sides: inflation could get “stuck” north of the target band, or global markets could deliver a sideswipe, for example”, she said.