By BRIAN FALLOW
Business sentiment continues to recover from its mid-year plunge, the National Bank's latest monthly survey shows.
Since the survey's responses came in, early in the month, the Reserve Bank's monetary policy statement signalled that interest rates were at least close to their peak.
But any fillip to confidence has been offset by the dollar's plunge. The currency might take another knock when June quarter gross domestic product is announced late next month, said the bank's chief economist, Brendan O'Donovan. The bank is picking minus 0.5 per cent.
In the latest survey, 34 per cent of respondents expect the general business environment to deteriorate over the next 12 months, while 20 per cent expect an improvement.
Only 16 per cent of firms expect increased activity in the year ahead but this is a vast improvement on a couple of months ago. Expectations for exports, profits, hiring and investment are up on last month.
The optimism extends across all sectors, apart from construction.
Optimism slowly returning
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