NAB June QTR Business Survey collides with RBA

Today’s June quarter NAB survey shows just how ridiculous the RBA Minutes were earlier this week. Here are the vitals:

Confidence down, conditions down, trading down, profitability down, employment down, capacity utilisation down. Labour prices, exports, forward orders were flat at poor levels. Capex was up a smidge.

Business conditions are falling in every sector (except retail):

And in every state:

The same with business confidence.

This is the worst quarterly survey I’ve seen in the past eighteen months. Why on earth did the RBA turn hawkish this week?

Survey Details 2012q2

Share

About the author

David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.