New Zealand ANZ Business Confidence fell from 11.2 to 6.1 in June. Despite this decrease in overall confidence, there was a slight improvement in the own activity outlook, from 11.8 to 12.2.
Cost expectations decreased from 72.6 to 69.2, while pricing intentions dropped significantly from 41.6 to 35.3, signaling easing price pressure in the business environment. Furthermore, inflation expectations continued their steady descent, moving from 3.59% to 3.46%.
ANZ noted that “the economy is clearly weak, as the RBNZ intended.” More importantly, there appears to be “renewed meaningful progress on bringing inflation pressures down.” This fosters optimism that RBNZ might be able to lower the Official Cash Rate considerably earlier than the currently projected August next year.
