The Roy Morgan business confidence survey for April has been released with confidence soaring 5.9% after the federal budget cut petrol excise in half, but before the RBA’s decision to hike interest rates 0.25%:
There were improvements across the index, and an increasing majority of businesses, 54%, expect ‘good times’ for the Australian economy over the next year while a slim majority, 51.6%, say the next 12 months will be a ‘good time to invest in growing the business’.
On a State-based level there were monthly increases in WA, up 19pts (+18.7%), Queensland, up 15.3pts (+15.5%), NSW, up 6.5pts (+5.7%) and a small increase in Victoria, up 0.9pts (+0.8%). The only exception was in SA, in which Business Confidence plunged 13.5pts (-12.4%) following the thumping election victory for the ALP, led by new Premier Peter Malinauskas, in late March.
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Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness.
Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.
