Australian December business confidence rises to -1, from -8 in November

NAB business survey is conducted monthly

December business confidence -1, pick ups in mining and retail

• -8 in November

Business conditions index 7, says NAB: “Conditions eased in December and are now firmly around their long-run average level”.

Points from the survey:

• measures of labour and production costs fell back after they rose in the November survey
• labour cost growth 1.8% in quarterly equivalent terms (from 2.3% in November)
• purchase cost growth to 1.6% (from 2.5%)
• overall price growth to 0.9% (from 1.2%)
• quarterly growth in retail prices dropped sharply to the lowest since late 2020, at 0.6% in December from 1.8% in November
• business sales down 3 to a still solid +10
• profitability unchanged at +6
• employment +7, from +8 in November
• capacity utilisation to 82.7%, from 83.6%

Overall price growth eased to 0.9% (from 1.2%), with retail prices slowing to 0.6% (from 1.8%).

NAB says on retail prices:

• “The sales periods around Black Friday and Christmas likely have played a role here but this is nonetheless an encouraging sign that inflation may have eased at the end of the quarter”