NAB’s January Business Survey reflects an economy with ‘little momentum’ and ‘weakish confidence’.
The survey shows business conditions had fallen slightly from December with a decline in sales and profits over January, while employment remained soft.
Business conditions were described as ‘increasingly below long-run average and apart from mining and wholesale, most industries had deteriorated with manufacturing at the lower end.
In light of the recent cash rate cut, the NAB says, “Our view is that the
RBA will sit back and watch for a few months to see if more needs to be done.
“Fundamentally we still see the need for another cut to counter lower commodity prices and other domestic headwinds.”
Business confidence had increased although was still below long run averages and remained weak in mining.
