New Zealand ANZ Business Confidence dropped to -38.1 in June, down from -32.0. Agriculture scored worse at -54.5, followed by construction at -42.3 and manufacturing at -41.4. Activity Outlook also dropped from 8.5 to 8.0.
ANZ noted: “The outlook for the economy is murky. As things stand, there is no reason for the economy to fall into a deep hole. Commodity prices are good, interest rates are at record lows, and the labour market is tight. But the economy is facing credit and cost headwinds and the global outlook is deteriorating. On the latter, for all that our commodity prices have been resilient, the risks are looking decidedly one-sided. Upside risks to growth appear few and far between and with the inflation outlook not consistent with the target midpoint we expect two more OCR cuts this year.”
