Allison Lawton: Business confidence drops

Business confidence is down, but the Rotorua economy continues to perform well. Photo/File

A Chamber of Commerce survey of businesses in the northern region has revealed that business confidence has fallen dramatically.

When questioned on their view of the NZ economy in the next six months, only 19 per cent believed it would improve and 32 per cent believed it would deteriorate. (This compares with 31 per cent and 11 per cent respectively in the last quarterly survey.)

So why do we think this is happening? I believe, like most of us, a significant factor was the election and uncertainty created by a change in Government. We know as business owners, we like to operate in an environment of certainty – when business is confident we employ and invest.

This uncertain trend was also born out in our ongoing sector group discussions. In 2018, the chamber will develop strategies, based on the sector group feedback, to advocate and influence policies to ensure we have progressive business conditions to fuel business confidence.

But the fabulous news is our economy continues to perform well. Infometrics' provisional estimate for GDP showed growth of 2.9 per cent in the September year. This was slightly slower than the previous figure of 3.1 per cent, but remained above the national average of 2.5 per cent.

Overall, spending and investment indicators have been positive. Important indicators such as traffic flows continue to show positive improvement have risen by 3.7 per cent over the past year, well above the national average of 2.3 per cent.

Tourism activity is buoyant, with expenditure up by 6.1 per cent over the past year and guest nights in commercial accommodation rising by almost 4 per cent.

Retail trade in Rotorua outperformed the country as a whole, rising by 5.1 per cent.

I'd like to acknowledge our retail and wholesale sector who make a fantastic contribution to our city. I was fortunate to be in a room with business owners and leaders from this sector, and the positivity they were expressing is born out in the Infometrics data above, ie. we are outperforming the country in retail trade.

If we think back five years ago, we would all agree our retail and wholesale sector was far from lucrative, or indeed attractive. I must confess, I rarely shopped in Rotorua. I am very pleased to say now, however, I do most my shopping here. Why? Because now there is choice between the national brands and boutique shops; the CBD precinct is more inviting; and an array of other reasons.

As a business community, we need to work together to create the vision we see for our city. "Together we are Stronger."

Allison Lawton is the chief executive for the Rotorua Chamber of Commerce.