According to Business South’s latest quarterly survey, for the final quarter of last year, southern business confidence has continued to improve, coupled with a fall in interest rates and anticipated improvements in individual financial performance.
The survey compiled the responses from 244 organisations across Otago and Southland, and 75% of businesses in Dunedin said they were expecting a stronger financial performance over the coming year.
A total of 52% of businesses in the Central Otago and Queenstown Lakes districts shared this sentiment, along with 51% across Waitaki, Clutha and Southland.
In Dunedin, 58% expected the southern economy to be stronger in 12 months’ time and 55% expected to hire new staff in this time.
“Overall, while there are still hurdles to overcome, such as the impacts of rising costs and unemployment, the outlook for the New Zealand economy is cautiously optimistic with expected improvements in various sectors,” the survey said.
Business South chief executive Mike Collins said the professional services and manufacturing sectors had contributed the most to the city’s overall optimism.
It was great to see optimism coming out of Dunedin, as a lot of the conversation had centred on growth in Central Otago, he said.
“We still need to really support each other out there in the business community and the economy as a whole.
“Although we see the positive sentiment coming through, there’s still a lot of work to do to really turn that into tangible results.”
This sentiment had gradually risen over the past two quarters, the result of increased consumer spending and certainty around contracts in the construction and manufacturing sectors, Mr Collins said.
But Dunedin still needed to grow its offering of regular events to stimulate activity in the hospitality, retail and tourism sectors.
Economic indicators suggested a turnaround could be expected around July or August this year, an expectation the survey showed was shared by businesses who were focused on remaining resilient in the short term, he said.
“We’re starting to see the kind of wheels turning in the right direction, from the business community’s perspective anyway.”
