WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand business confidence fell in the second quarter to its lowest since March 2009, led by pessimism in the manufacturing sector, a private think tank said on Tuesday, supporting the central bank's view that further cuts to borrowing costs may be needed to tackle economic risks.
A net 34% of firms surveyed expected general business conditions to deteriorate, compared with 29% in the previous quarter, the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research's (NZIER) quarterly survey of business opinion showed.
Firms' own trading activity also weakened to its lowest level since September 2012, NZIER said. The results suggested annual GDP growth would edge below 2% over the second half of the year, it added.
The survey's measure of capacity utilisation was 93.7%, versus the previous quarter's 92.4%.
(Reporting by Praveen Menon; Editing by Peter Cooney)
