New Zealand ANZ Business Confidence rose from 33.2 to 36.6 in January. However, Own Activity Outlook fell from 29.3 to 25.6.
In a significant development, inflation expectations decreased from 4.61% to 4.28%, reaching their lowest point since November 2021. Despite this decline in inflation expectations, a high number of firms still plan to increase their prices, with the pricing intentions index only marginally decreasing from 50.2 to 49.7. Cost expectations also saw a slight reduction, moving from 76.2 to 75.6, but they remain at elevated levels.
ANZ’s commentary on the situation pointed out that the New Zealand economy is at a critical point, expressing a cautiously optimistic outlook. They anticipate that RBNZ has implemented sufficient tightening measures and expect a gradual realization of their impact, leading to a possible initiation of “a steady stream of OCR cuts” by August.
