The coronavirus pandemic has decimated Australian business confidence, according to Roy Morgan Research:
In March 2020 Roy Morgan Business Confidence was down 9.5pts (-9.1%) to 95.1 – a new record low, more than 4pts below the previous bottom of 99.8 the decade-old index hit in July 2011.
Analysing Business Confidence by dividing March into fortnights reveals a tale of two distinct halves. In the first two weeks of the month the index continued its recovery from the summer bushfires and averaged 107.5, an increase of 2.9pts from February.However, this recovery was halted in mid-March, with the index averaging only 71.4 over the last half of the month. It plunged day-by-day through to the end of March as the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic hit Australia and prompted increasing government restrictions to stop the spread of the virus.
