National Australia Bank business survey, for January 2025:
Business Confidence +4, improved on expectations of lower interest rates
- prior -2.0
Business Conditions +3
- prior 6.0
- sales (down 4 to 6) and profits (down 6 to -2) declined
- margin pressures, particularly in retail
- Alan Oster, NAB’s chief economist says “Cost pressures remain high for businesses, but they aren’t fully passing them on to consumers, which is weighing on profitability and overall business conditions”
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The survey provided conflicting signals on inflation:
- Labour costs accelerated to a quarterly pace of 1.8%.
- Purchase cost growth slowed to 1.1%.
- Retail prices rose at a 0.9% quarterly pace, up from 0.7% in December.
Meanwhile, capacity utilisation fell to 82.0% from 82.7%, indicating slightly more slack in the economy.