Via Damien Boey at Credit Suisse:
The NAB business confidence survey for August was quite soft. Business confidence fell to +1 from +4, while firms’ assessment of business conditions also fell to +1 from +3.
Compositionally, firms reported softer growth in trading activity, weakness in new orders, and contraction in profits. Interestingly, hiring intentions rose modestly to +2 from 0, while labour cost inflation picked up to 1.2% over the prior quarter. Capacity utilization rose to 82% from an upwardly-revised 81%.