BNZ Monthly Confidence Survey Results

BNZ Monthly Confidence Survey Results

Our monthly survey of Weekly Overview readers has revealed an increase in pessimism over the past month to a net 39% feeling the economy will deteriorate over the coming year from 30% in the July survey.

The most interesting result from the comments about conditions in specific industries is overwhelmingly negative sentiment in residential real estate. Of the 21 responses 18 were bad, one neutral, and two on the positive side. Even in the early part of 2006 when there were many worries about interest rates and migration flows and consumer confidence was at multi-year lows the anecdotal feedback was never this bad. It appears that at long last the Reserve Bank's interest rate increases are definitely gaining some traction in the residential real estate market. Which just goes to show that the official cash rate can be an effective weapon- but it is a pity they didn't use it properly back in 2004 and 2005 and we wouldn't have so much pain in many parts of the export sector.

See... Results_Aug6.pdf

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