KEY POINTS:
Evidence of falling confidence in the economy continues to mount with the latest coming from a monthly survey by the Bank of New Zealand.
The survey of readers of the bank's Weekly Overview, is promoted as giving the earliest indication each month of what is happening with general sentiment about the economy.
The latest survey has the worst reading since February 2006 with 62.3 per cent of respondents expecting conditions to deteriorate.
Despite that, the results did not suggest the economy was heading for recession, BNZ said.
But they did suggest a weak environment going forward that backed up the downside risks to growth emphasised by the Reserve Bank.
They also suggested the high level of the New Zealand dollar would not persist throughout the year.
Comment from respondents on residential real estate was so overwhelmingly negative that any positive comments could only be interpreted as sales jabber, BNZ said.
Among other points picked up from comments was that sheep and beef farming remained in poor condition and strains were apparent in the kiwifruit sector.
Construction still looked fine, particularly regarding infrastructure work, while conditions in manufacturing and information technology were mixed.
Forestry remained under stress, retailing looked weak but tourism appeared to be holding up for now.
- NZPA
