By Lucy Craymer
WELLINGTON (Reuters) – New Zealand’s business confidence rose in December amid a bounce in most activity indicators and is now at its highest level since March 2015, an ANZ Bank survey showed on Tuesday.
The survey’s headline measure showed a net 33.2% of respondents expected the economy to improve over the year ahead, versus a 30.8% optimism level in the previous poll in November.
A net 29.3% of respondents expected their own businesses to grow in the next 12 months, versus 26.3% last month.
ANZ said in a note that the survey told a story of both an expected and experienced rebound in activity, with mixed inflation indicators.
“Activity and profit expectations, export and employment intentions, and residential construction expectations all rose (indeed, the latter soared),” it added.
(Reporting by Lucy Craymer; Editing by Sandra Maler)