New Zealand business confidence showed further improvement in the fourth quarter as businesses held onto the recovery in sales seen in September, a private think tank said on Tuesday.
A net 6% of firms surveyed expected general business conditions to deteriorate compared with 40% expecting a slowdown in the previous quarter, the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research's (NZIER) quarterly survey of business opinion (QSBO) showed.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, a net 16% of businesses expect a deterioration in general economic conditions over the coming months, lower than the 38% in the previous quarter and well below the 68% of businesses feeling pessimistic in March 2020.
The survey's measure of capacity utilisation was 95.1%, from the previous quarter's 92.6%.
(Reporting by Praveen Menon; Editing by Nick Zieminski)
