A mixed bag in Australian business survey – confidence a touch better, conditions worse

National Australia Bank Business Survey for March 2024:

Business Confidence 1

• prior 0

Business Conditions 9

• prior 10

Some of the sub indexes:

• business sales steady at +14
• employment steady +6
• profitability
  fell 4 points to +6
• capacity utilisation 83.2%, from 83.4% – pointing to supply and demand coming into better balance

Cost pressures remain evident:

• retail prices +1.3% q/q (prior +1.4%)
• purchase
  costs 1.4% (prior 1.8%)

NAB says on price pressure:

• “This aligns with our expectation that progress on bringing
  inflation back to target will be gradual from here, and we
  expect that to be further reinforced by the Q1 CPI result later
  in April”

AUD little changed

This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at www.forexlive.com.