Australian Business Confidence Shows Cautious Signs Of Improvement

 

Business confidence across Australia showed some signs of improvement in March, with a slight increase of 6.3 per cent, according to Roy Morgan Research.

The upward trajectory in the statistics is applicable across all sectors, with the main reason behind the increase being that a number of companies see the next 12 months as an opportune time to grow their endeavors.

Strategic planning and business confidence

Of course, this is easier said than done without sound strategic planning practices in place. However, if enterprises can make efforts to expand over the course of the next year, business confidence could continue to rise to the high level registered in late 2013.

“A promising sign for Australia’s economic growth prospects is the fact that businesses are now more confident about investing in expansion over the coming year than they have been for some time,” explained Industry Communications Director at Roy Morgan Research Norman Morris.

While the year, so far, has seen Australia’s economy battling with the ongoing impact of regression in the mining sector, as well as a falling dollar, the end of Q1 and Q2 could prove to be the turning point.

“The proportion of those who believe it will be a good time to increase investment is at its highest level for 2015 so far. If this can be sustained over the coming months, the economy … will benefit,” Mr Morris continued.

National Australia Bank also maintain that Australian businesses are performing at steady levels, according to its most recent Monthly Business Survey. This is no small part due to the rise in business confidence across the country.

Global economic outlook

Ultimately, while Australian businesses can put strategies in place that improve confidence within themselves, global goings on also have an impact.

For example, a mixture of the pace of the US economic recovery, issues and uncertainty in Greece and the slowdown in one of the world’s biggest markets, China, can all amalgamate and affect how Australian companies perceive their interests.

All that being said, business confidence slipped to its lowest point in nearly three years at the end of 2014, so there can be little denying that this latest upturn is certainly a step in the right direction.