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Business confidence ticks up

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  Grant Robertson cautiously embraced slightly more positive business confidence figures in September. Grant Robertson cautiously embraced slightly more positive business confidence figures in September. Photo: Lynn Grieveson

Business confidence ticked up slightly this week, capping off a series of positive economic stories for the Government, but the future is still murky, Thomas Coughlan reports on Newsroom.

ANZ’s business confidence survey showed headline confidence appear to halt its year-long decline yesterday, ticking up 12 points in September, although a net 38 percent of firms still have a negative economic outlook.

Firms’ outlook for their own activity, which correlates far better with economic growth, also rose. It was up 4 points with a net 8 percent of firms expecting their own activity to improve over the next year.

Finance Minister Grant Robertson was pleased with the results, but cautious - saying it was just one survey and he would “wait and see if a trend emerges”.

Trade Minister David Parker has previously labelled the surveys “junk”, and Robertson has noted that GDP has a greater correlation to points scored in Crusaders rugby games than the ANZ Business Outlook survey of headline confidence. Continue to read . . . .