Results for the National Australia Bank Business Survey for July
The twin headlines are confidence and conditions.
Business Confidence 4
- vs. prior 2
Business Conditions 2
- vs. prior 4, revised from 3
Major components, check out the employment sub index …. gugh
NAB key points, in brief
- Broadly unchanged from last month
- the business sector has lost significant momentum since early 2018 and that forward looking indicators do not point to an improvement in the near term
- conditions … confidence … Both remain clearly below their respective long-run averages
- Forward orders are well below average (and negative)
- capacity utilisation is now back around average - pointing to little improvement in the short-term
- employment index and capex also weakening over the past year
- Weakness in the retail industry continues to stand out, with conditions in that industry at recessionary levels - and declining further in the month. A worrying result, given we expected some boost to the industry following the post-election tax cuts.
- the lift in confidence following the election appears to have faded with little impact on actual conditions
