"We're long past recovery. It's a strong picture across the board, both by sector and region."
-Cameron Bagrie, chief economist at ANZ New Zealand
Confidence among New Zealand's companies climbed to a new five-year high in September, on the back of strong profits from construction firms, hiring and investment. The ANZ Business Outlook survey showed that net 54% of respondents are expecting general conditions to improve during the next 12 month, up from 48.1% in August, hitting the highest since March 1999. Furthermore, companies which are seeing a pickup in their own business activity in the coming year to a net 45%, up from 43.3% in the previous survey.
In contrast, export intentions slipped, with only 23.2% expecting a pickup in the year ahead, down from 24.1% in August. Earlier this month, figures showed nation's trade balance widened significantly, reaching NZ$1.2 billion ($989 million) in August, while year to date the country has a trade deficit of NZ$2.06 billion. And a recent drop in export intentions is suggesting trade balance will not improve in the foreseeable future. However, the RBNZ pledge to act in the year is boosting businesses confidence. The RBNZ Governor Graeme Wheeler said that additional stimulus may be needed to curb the inflation that is expected to hover around 2% in 2014 in case housing pressure spill into consumer prices.
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