Australian October Business Confidence -2 (vs. prior 0)

<p>National Australia Bank Business Survey for October 2023:</p><p>Confidence -2 </p><ul><li>prior 0</li></ul><p>Conditions +13 </p><ul><li>prior +12</li></ul><p>The 'conditions' index tends to be more objective than the somewhat sentiment-driven 'confidence' index.</p><p>More:</p><ul><li>sales index stayed very strong, up 2 points rise to
+20</li><li>profitability increased +3 points to +12</li><li>
employment fell 1 point to +8</li><li>forward orders -2 points to 0</li><li>labour cost growth eased to a quarterly 1.8%, as did growth
in purchase costs</li><li>retail price growth held at a quarterly pace
of 1.9%, though overall price growth eased to it lowest since
mid-2020 at 1.0%.</li></ul><p>NAB comments:</p><ul><li>
"Business conditions remain healthy, picking up in October
and still well above average"</li><li>and on confidence: "Businesses clearly remain cautious about the outlook for the economy despite the resilience we are seeing"</li><li>"Inflation had been persistent through the middle of the
year and the survey suggests this remained the case heading into
Q4 … We still expect to see gradual moderation over time but it will be a protracted process, especially given the resilience of domestic demand thus far."</li></ul>

This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at www.forexlive.com.