New Zealand ANZ business survey for May, final
Business Confidence -41.8
- preliminary was -45.6 vs. prior -66.6
Activity Outlook -38.7
- preliminary -42.0 vs. prior -55.1
ANZ's key points from the results:
- A net 39% of firms expect weaker activity for their own business, still well below 2008/09 lows. The retail sector is the most pessimistic on this front.
- Although we are making progress opening the economy, Business Outlook activity indicators are improving painfully slowly. Expected profitability, investment and employment intentions, lifted but are all still deeply negative.
- A net 42% of firms intend to lay off staff (just over half before subtracting the positives), with retail the hardest hit and agriculture the least.
- Inflation expectations were unchanged at 1.3%, sitting near the bottom of the RBNZ's 1-3% CPI target range.
And:
- further small lifts across most activity indicators as disruption continues to ease, but the levels remain deeply recessionary. It's going to be a long haul.
