Confidence for the economy slumped in October as a high number of businesses note the Rugby World Cup is having a depressing effect on activity, a monthly survey from BNZ shows.
BNZ chief economist Tony Alexander said only a net 6.9 per ccent of the 391 respondents to his monthly email survey expected an improvement in the economy over the year ahead, down from a net 36.3 per cent in September.
October recorded the lowest reading in confidence since immediately after the February 22 earthquake that struck Canterbury, and continued a downward trend from a record high in June, Alexander said.
"No clear theme comes through the written responses explaining why sentiment has changed so much, with only a few respondents explicitly noting the poor news from offshore. No-one cited the credit rating downgrades. But there were a high number of people who noted that the Rugby World Cup is having a depressing effect on their current levels of business," Alexander said.
