Business confidence improved in October but remains mired in gloom

Business confidence improved in October but remains mired in gloom
Rebecca Howard
Business confidence improved in October but remains deeply negative and firms' optimism about their own activity continues to fall. A net 42.4 percent of the 412 respondents surveyed by ANZ Bank expect general business conditions will deteriorate during the coming year, down from 53.5 percent in September.  However, firms' optimism about their own activity also fell, with a net 3.5 percent now expecting things to get worse, compared with the net 1.8 percent who were negative in the September survey. It was the fifth fall in a row and the...

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