NZ business confidence drops to four-year low as economic outlook worries firms

NZ business confidence drops to four-year low as economic outlook worries firms
Suze Metherell
By Suze Metherell Oct. 6 (BusinessDesk) - New Zealand business confidence 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. A net 9 percent of firms in the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research’s quarterly survey of business opinion predict general business conditions to get worse, sliding from an optimistic reading of 5 percent three months earlier, and the lowest reading since March 2011. However th...