WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand business sentiment eased slightly in August, though still remained upbeat in line with a solid economic backdrop, an ANZ Bank survey showed on Thursday.
The survey's headline measure showed a net 18.3 percent of respondents expected the economy to improve over the year ahead. It compared with a 19.4 percent optimism level in the previous poll in July.
A net 38.2 percent of respondents expected their own businesses to grow in the next 12 months, from 40.3 percent last month.
(Reporting by Ana Nicolaci da Costa; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
