Business confidence has soared to its highest level in two years while consumer sentiment has recovered to where it was ahead of last summer's bushfires, just in time for the key Christmas retail season.
NAB's closely watched monthly business survey showed a 9 point jump in confidence through September, taking it to its highest level since early 2018. Business conditions also improved, up 7 points.There were big improvements in trading and profitability as well as forward orders while capacity utilisation also improved.
"Businesses appetite to hire workers and undertake new investments will be crucial to the economy's recovery going forward, as the initial bounce in activity – and any pent-up demand – fades." Current economic conditions improved by 2.9 per cent, future economic conditions increased by 2 per cent but the measure of current financial conditions slipped by 0.6 per cent.