Oceania > Australia > Australia Business Confidence December 2015

Australia: Australia Business Confidence December 2015

2016/01/28

he business sentiment index published by the National Australia Bank (NAB) fell from five points in November to three points in December. Despite of the monthly decrease, the indicator is still above the 0-point threshold, which means that Australian businesses are optimistic regarding economic conditions in the coming months.

Although the index weakened, The NAB felt that the decrease was not significant enough to show a fundamental deterioration in business confidence. The Bank elaborated that external conditions, inclunding the slowdown in China and a wider pessimistic outlook of the world economy, weighed on business confidence in December.

However, the NAB indicated that the situation could have been worse, stating, “business confidence eased back a little in the month, but held up completely well in light of large declines in equity markets and oil prices – triggered concerns over the world economic outlook. It appears as though positive business conditions are (for presently) buffering sentiment from these market fluctuations.”


FocusEconomics Consensus Estimate panelists see fixed investment contracting 2.6% in 2016, which is down 0.5 % points from last month’s estimate. For 2017, the panel sees investment recovering and climbing 0.3%.

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