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Business confidence improved last month, as the New Zealand dollar fell and commodity prices continued to climb.
The National Bank's Business Outlook survey found pessimists outnumbering optimists - by over three to one - about general business conditions in a year's time. But the net 34 per cent expecting worse times was an improvement from 39 per cent in July.
Firms' views of their own prospects improved as well.
A net 17 per cent expect their own activity to increase over the year ahead, up from a net 12 per cent in July and the highest reading since April.
Their profit and export expectations, and investment intentions, also improved marginally. Employment intentions were unchanged.
The proportion of firms planning to increase their prices over the next three months rose from a net 28 in July to 31 per cent.
The survey pointed to economic growth of around 2 per cent over the coming year and inflation remaining in the uppermost quarter of the Reserve Bank's 1 to 3 per cent band, the bank's chief economist, Cameron Bagrie, said.
Bagrie was surprised at respondents' resilience, in light of the turmoil in global financial markets. The survey responses came in during the first half of the month.
Next month's survey would capture the fallout from the finance company collapses.
"Risk is now being repriced as the global credit cycle turns and the global economy transitions from a period of exceptional appetites for risk to a more normal environment," Bagrie said.
