Business Confidence 1
- prior 0
Business Conditions 6
- prior 8
- conditions are a more objective measure than the sentiment-influenced confidence result
- long-run average for this is 7
Some of the sub-indexes:
- business sales +11 in January from +14 in December
- profitability +5 vs +7 prior
- employment also +5 vs +7 prior
- capacity utilisation 83.6% from 82.8% prior
- quarterly growth in purchase costs edged up to 1.8%
- growth in retail prices to +0.9% in January from +0.5% in December
- labour cost growth unchanged at +2%
- final product prices +1.2%.
NAB comments:
- "Confidence remains weak as it has for some time, consistent with ongoing pressures across the economy with growth clearly slowing in the back half of 2023, and cost growth still high"
- "Price pressures remain solid despite the ongoing easing in activity measures"
- "However, they typically lag activity in the economy and we expect an ongoing easing in price pressures across the economy in early 2024"
The pressure for higher prices remains. NAB expects this to diminish but the data is not showing thus far.
