WELLINGTON: New Zealand’s business confidence in the third quarter improved slightly but the sentiment is generally downbeat, a private think tank said on Tuesday.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, 53% expected business conditions to worsen, against 60% pessimism recorded in the previous period. The survey’s measure of capacity utilization rose to 87.3%, from the previous quarter’s 87.1%. “These developments suggest that higher interest rates are starting to dampen demand in the New Zealand economy,” NZIER said in its report.