Roy Morgan’s business confidence index collapsed 18.7pts (-15.6%) to 101.5 in January. This is the biggest monthly plunge in the index in points during the pandemic and the largest fall in percentage terms since April 2020 at the start of the pandemic (-19.1%):
The plunge in January came as the Omicron variant swept Australia causing the infection of over 2 million Australians with COVID-19 and forcing millions more into isolation for being close contacts of confirmed cases. The disruption to businesses caused problems throughout the economy and led to breakdowns in supply chains which are only now being gradually rectified.
On a State-based level there were monthly decreases across the board in January led by NSW, down 17.1pts (-13.7%) to 107.6, Victoria, down 22.6pts (-19%) to 96.3, Queensland, down 23.4pts (-20.2%) to 92.5 and South Australia, down 12.3pts (-11.2%) to 97.4.
