New Zealand business confidence drops further in December

WELLINGTON – New Zealand business sentiment continued its slide in December, weighed down by concerns over finding skilled labour and the rising non-wage cost inflation, an ANZ Bank survey showed on Friday.

The survey’s headline measure showed a net 23.2% of respondents expected the economy to deteriorate over the year ahead, compared with 16.4% in the previous poll in November.

A net 11.8% of respondents expected their own businesses to grow in the next 12 months, down from 15.0% last month.

(Reporitng by Praveen Menon; Editing by Himani Sarkar)