Business confidence in free fall

The Herald reports:

The spiking price of fuel, slow progress on housing and infrastructure and the threat of rising labour costs has sent business confidence in the country’s biggest city into “free fall”, says Auckland Chamber of Commerce boss Michael Barnett.

The chamber last week surveyed 800 businesses and found nearly half (44 per cent) believed the economy will deteriorate over the rest of this year.

Only 15 per cent thought the economy would improve during that time.

Compare that to June last year, when a third of businesses surveyed thought the economy would improve while only eight per cent believed things would get worse.

This is no surprise. When you have a government that decides to close down an entire industry without consultation or advice, then no wonder business owners are spooked.