New Zealand business sentiment brightened in October as success in containing the COVID-19 outbreak in the country allowed the economy to re-open and activity to pick up from very depressed levels, an ANZ Bank survey showed on Thursday.
The survey's headline measure showed a net 15.7% of respondents expected the economy to deteriorate over the year ahead, an improvement from 28.5% in September.
A net 4.7% of respondents expected their own businesses to improve in the next 12 months, a marked turnaround from September when 5.4% expected conditions to worsen.
Construction was the most optimistic sector, while agriculture and retail were the most downbeat.
(Reporting by Wayne Cole; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
