Australia NAB Business Condition recovered and rose 1pt to 15 in June. Business Confidence continued recent decline and dropped 1pt to 6. Alan Oster, NAB Group Chief Economist, noted that “the business conditions index held broadly steady in June after pulling back last month, and remains well above average, suggesting conditions are strong in the business sector. Conditions remain favourable across most states and industries.”
He added that overall, the survey is consistent with NAB’s outlook for 2018. Despite easing a little recently, leading indicators remain positive suggesting continued growth in output and employment. Higher profitability and trading conditions as well as high rates of capacity utilisation also remain conducive to higher business investment. This growth will be necessary to reduce the amount of spare capacity in the economy, which should in time see a rise in prices and wages growth, which we consider key to the path of monetary policy over the next few years”
