Firms downbeat on economy: NZIER survey

ALTHOUGH business confidence fell in the NZIER's latest quarterly survey, firms were more upbeat about their own trading.

NEW Zealand business confidence has extended its decline in the third quarter, plunging to its lowest level in more than four years, with local firms now expecting conditions to deteriorate in a tougher economic climate.

NINE per cent of firms in the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research's quarterly survey of business opinion predict general business conditions to worsen, sliding from an optimistic reading of five per cent three months earlier, to be at the lowest reading since March 2011.