New Zealand business confidence slipped in December, though profit expectations rose in a mixed bag of results from National Bank's Business outlook survey, suggesting the nation in is relatively good shape as it faces "the global storm ahead."
A net 17 per cent of businesses expect better times for the
economy in the year ahead, down 1 point on November's survey, which had snapped three months of declines. A net 26 per cent of firms see a pickup in their own activity in the year ahead, down 3 points from November.
The Business Outlook survey comes after diverse results from surveys on manufacturing, the services sector and consumer confidence, with the latter plunging, while services were stronger and manufacturing in contraction.
Figures this week are expected to show the economy accelerated in the third quarter, though not enough to spur the central bank into raising interest rates.
"We see reasonable, but waning economic momentum into year's end and a soft start to 2012 activity," said Philip Borkin, economist at Goldman Sachs New Zealand.
