Australia NAB Business Conditions improved from 1 to 3 in June, but remain below average. Business Confidence dropped from 7 to 2, largely unwound the bounce from 0 to 7 in May. NAB said “the recent run of results also suggest that the economy is unlikely to record a significant pickup in growth in Q2.” Further, “forward orders also remain below average (and are negative), suggesting a near-term turn around in business activity is unlikely.”
According to Alan Oster, NAB Group Chief Economist, “Business confidence appears to have unwound its spike in May, which we think was driven by a short-term election bounce and increased optimism around a renewed interest rate easing cycle by the RBA. While business conditions increased slightly in the month, they remain well below average after trending lower for over a year now. The decrease in conditions has been relatively broad-based across states and industries – suggesting that there has been sector wide loss of momentum over the past year”.
