What is the survey about?
The Survey of Business Expectations is a quarterly survey which highlights the South Australian business community’s view of current and future economic conditions. In partnership with advisory firm
William Buck, the results are analysed, deciphered and published in our quarterly joint publication, Business Now.. These results inform Business SA policy and advocacy work and provide a robust indicator to government and other stakeholders of the business environment in South Australia. You can view all the past results
here.
June Quarter Results
Business confidence has fallen for the second consecutive quarter, dropping 11.5 points from 95.9 to 84.4 – a level not seen since late 2017 - in the Business SA – William Buck Survey of Business Expectations. Over the past two surveys, business confidence has fallen more than 30 points.
Conditions have only dipped slightly, dropping 1.8 points to be well into negative territory on 87.7 points.
More than 41 per cent of businesses expected the state’s economy to perform weaker or slightly weaker over the next 12 months, compared to 35.1 per cent in the March quarter and 22 per cent in December. Only 25.6 per cent expected it to improve.
Insights: Jamie McKeough, Managing Director, William Buck
Our continued slide in confidence is the June quarter Business SA – William Buck Survey of Business Expectations is starting to point to wider issues in the South Australian economy, and shows that businesses are considering more than just political stability when it comes to their operating conditions and future prospects.
The Business SA – William Buck June quarter Survey of Business Expectations shows an 11.5-point slide in confidence, indicating there are underlying economic issues which need to be addressed. Concern remains high about the state of the national economy, harder access to finance due to the ongoing impacts of APRA regulation and the banking Royal Commission, and the drought across regional Australia, and there’s a new factor influencing confidence – interest rate cuts.
The Reserve Bank’s two recent cuts are aimed at moving the national economy in a positive direction, to encourage people to spend more in retail and hospitality, take that holiday, to step up and buy their first home, undertake renovations or to invest. But we believe the interest rate cuts may be having the opposite effect as consumers start to question whether there’s anything going wrong with the economy.
Business SA Survey of Business Expectations, powered by
Read the report below