National Australia Bank Business Survey for October 2023:

Confidence -2

  • prior 0

Conditions +13

  • prior +12

The 'conditions' index tends to be more objective than the somewhat sentiment-driven 'confidence' index.

More:

  • sales index stayed very strong, up 2 points rise to +20
  • profitability increased +3 points to +12
  • employment fell 1 point to +8
  • forward orders -2 points to 0
  • labour cost growth eased to a quarterly 1.8%, as did growth in purchase costs
  • retail price growth held at a quarterly pace of 1.9%, though overall price growth eased to it lowest since mid-2020 at 1.0%.

NAB comments:

  • "Business conditions remain healthy, picking up in October and still well above average"
  • and on confidence: "Businesses clearly remain cautious about the outlook for the economy despite the resilience we are seeing"
  • "Inflation had been persistent through the middle of the year and the survey suggests this remained the case heading into Q4 ... We still expect to see gradual moderation over time but it will be a protracted process, especially given the resilience of domestic demand thus far."