Following this morning’s shocker consumer confidence report, which crashed to the lowest level since July 2014:
Roy Morgan Research (RMR) has released its Business Confidence survey for August, which crashed 8.6% to its lowest level in four years:
According to RMR:
Roy Morgan Research’s Business Confidence declined by 9.7 points in August (down 8.6% to 102.6) mainly due to the continued poor economic outlook for Australia over the next 12 months and the negative impact that this is likely to have on businesses’ future financial position. Business confidence is now down 13.5 points (11.6%) from 12 months ago and remains well below the five-year average of 116.9. The current level of 102.6 is the lowest since August 2011 when it was 101.8…
The decline in business confidence in August was caused by a drop in all components of the index. The biggest declines were in how businesses felt about their own financial position over the last 12 months, and their deteriorating financial outlook for the next 12 months…
The continued negative outlook for the Australian economy has resulted in a major drop over the last month in the proportion of businesses thinking that the next 12 months would be a good time to invest in growing their business. This has now dropped to 51% (from 57% in July) and is well below the long-term average of 56%. Obviously, this does not bode well for improved economic growth…
While there is still hope that the mining sector’s decline will be compensated by growth in other sectors, this is unlikely, given the below-average confidence levels in key industries such as manufacturing, agriculture and retail. Confidence in the all-important construction industry remains only around average, and is not showing any real signs of improving. The industries showing above-average confidence include finance and insurance, rental and real estate, and the wholesale trade…
So basically outside of the FIRE sector, which is of course being supported by the epic Sydney/Melbourne housing bubbles, business conditions stink.
