February 11, 2025 at 12:30AM
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.
This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at www.forexlive.com.
