New Zealand ANZ business confidence was unchanged at -37.1 in November. Activity outlook rose 0.2 to 7.6. ANZ noted that “Left well enough alone, the New Zealand economy can muddle through. Population growth is cooling, and household debt is very high, but interest rates are stimulatory, the terms of trade are high, and dairy production is off to a boomer.”
“The main threat to growth is in fact offshore, with mounting evidence that global growth is slowing (particularly in export powerhouses such as China and Germany), which is an unhelpful backdrop for already-wobbly equity and credit markets. New Zealand is a small, open economy reliant on foreign capital, and what happens offshore can have a big impact.”
