National Australia Bank business survey.
The twin headlines from this are:
- business confidence, comes in at +6 in January from 0 in December
- business conditions +18 in January, from +13 in December
Of the two ‘conditions’ is the more objective measure. Confidence is of course a sentiment.
Some of the sub-measures in the survey:
- sales +8 to 28 (this is historically high)
- employment +2 points to +10
- profitability +4 points to +17
- labour costs (November to January) +2.7% than in August-October, when they were up 2.1% from the previous three months (this peaked at +4.6% in May-July)
On the inflation front,
- purchase costs and retail prices also higher but both were well short of last year’s peak
NAB comments from the report:
- The improvement in confidence suggest firms have a more optimistic outlook as concerns about global growth prospects ease, while strong conditions are also providing evidence that the economy is more resilient than previously expected
- From here, the pace of ongoing supply chain healing and strength of wage growth will be important in shaping how much further cost pressures ease, while the resilience of consumption will continue to be tested as higher rates are passed through to households
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AUD little changed:
This article was originally published by Forexlive.com. Read the original article here.