WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand business sentiment deteriorated in March even as firms' outlook for their own activity improved, an ANZ Bank survey showed on Wednesday.
The survey's headline measure showed a net 20 percent of respondents were pessimistic about the economy over the year ahead, compared to 19 percent in the previous month's poll.
"The economy is certainly not crawling, but it's hardly gliding along," said Sharon Zollner, chief economist at ANZ Bank. "This far into the cycle it is naturally hard to accelerate.
Nevertheless, a net 21.8 percent of respondents expected their own businesses to grow in the next 12 months, up from 20.4 percent last month.
(Reporting by Charlotte Greenfield; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
