Australia’s NAB Business Confidence index slipped from 8 to 4 in August, but conditions showed improvement, rising from 5 to 7. Trading remained steady at 12, while profitability rose from 2 to 4 and employment from 2 to 5. NAB Chief Economist Sally Auld said the results support the view that “the outlook for businesses continues to improve,” with both confidence and conditions now near long-run averages.
Capacity utilisation rose to 83.1% from 82.5%, staying two percentage points above its long-run norm. Capital expenditure intentions also improved, climbing from 8 to 10. Together, these suggest firms are still operating at high levels of resource use despite broader uncertainties.
At the same time, cost pressures eased further. Purchase cost growth slowed from 1.3% to 1.1%, its lowest since 2021, while labour costs moderated to from 1.9% 1.5% and product price growth dipped to from 0.8% 0.6%. The survey points to an environment of resilient business activity and capacity tightness, but with inflation pressures continuing to recede.
