NZ businesses pare back optimism in March quarter, signal price hikes coming

Mon, 03 Apr 2017

By Paul McBeth April 4 (BusinessDesk) - New Zealand firms pared back their level of optimism in the first three months of the year as domestic trading activity stayed robust while signalling broader price hikes were on the cards as firms contend with an increasingly tight labour market and rising costs. A seasonally adjusted net 16 percent of firms surveyed in the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research's quarterly survey of business opinion anticipate better economic conditions in the coming year, down from a net 26 percent in the Dec...

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