New Zealand business sentiment improved slightly in July driven by a bounce in the retail sector, but the recovery appears to be running out of steam, an ANZ Bank survey showed on Thursday.
The survey's headline measure showed a net 31.8% of respondents expected the economy to deteriorate over the year ahead. That compared with a 34.4% pessimism level in the previous poll in June.
A net 8.9% of respondents expected weaker activity in the next 12 months, an improvement from the 25.9% who had expected softer conditions at the end of last month.
"The vigorous bounce out of lockdown appears to be topping out...," said ANZ Chief Economist, Sharon Zollner.
The survey showed 31% of firms said they intend to lay off staff, and 24% say they have fewer staff than a year ago. These numbers were a significant improvement from their lows, it said.
(Reporting by Praveen Menon; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
