New Zealand business sentiment lifted in May over the previous month, but the outlook was improving "painfully slowly" and more than 40% of the surveyed firms intended to cut staff numbers, an ANZ Bank survey showed on Thursday.
The survey's headline measure showed a net 41.8% of respondents expected the economy to deteriorate over the year ahead. It compared with a 66.6% pessimism level in the previous poll in April.
A net 38.7% of respondents expect weaker activity for their business in the next 12 months, versus 55.1% who expected weakness in last month's poll.
Employment intentions show a net 42% of firms intend to cut staff, ANZ said in the report.
(Reporting by Praveen Menon; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
