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Dec 18, 2019, 12:00 PM GMT
#Economy

New Zealand’s Business Confidence Named ‘Merrier’ Ahead of Christmas

The ANZ decided to label the business confidence index in New Zealand for December as getting 'Merrier', as the findings of its economic report demonstrated noticeable improvement in the index for the third consecutive month.

The index in the country is still predominantly negative; however, headline business confidence jumped by 13.2 index points in December to -13.2.

New Zealand Business Confidence

The ANZ cited improvements in the manufacturing and services sectors as the most significant improvements since the previous period, which is a sign of strengthening industry.

Nevertheless, the same core issues preventing more substantial investments within New Zealand’s economy prevail in Q4 of 2019. In the report, it was further stated that:

“The main drivers for firms planning to lift investment are the domestic economic outlook, the level of spare capacity, and skilled labour shortages. Firms planning to cut investment cite the domestic economic outlook, central government policy and the global economic outlook as the three biggest drivers of their decision.”

Even though this is undoubtedly welcoming news signifying an improvement of New Zealand's economy, the RBNZ still has much work to do to convince investors that the aforementioned core issues do not impede the growth prospects in the country.

Meanwhile, the New Zealand Dollar continues to struggle to generate significant gains following the recent strengthening of the currency.

The NZDUSD is consolidating for the seventh consecutive day just below the Major resistance level at 0.66061, as the price fails to break out above that level, even for a temporary testing of the resistance’s strength.

The strength of the recent bullish trend is evidently waning as the currency’s momentum is dying out, indicated by the MACD.

A short-term price correction is becoming increasingly likely, as the price could fall to the next significant price level, which is the major support at 0.64940.

NZDUSD 1D Price Chart