Shops on Auckland's Queen Street. Photo: RNZ / Liu Chen
Business performance sentiment has fallen to a record low with company leaders feeling downbeat about their outlook.
The six-monthly survey from accounting firm BDO shows 48 percent of business leaders felt positive about their performance in the last two weeks, compared to 57 percent in the May report.
Only 35 percent of business leaders also felt positive about their current financials - also a record low.
The survey was launched in June 2022, and featured responses from more than 530 business leaders and owners.
BDO advisory partner Kimberley Symon said bad economic news and continued underperformance weighed on sentiment.
"We had an uptick before the election in October 2023 and they've really been dropping down [since]," she said.
Symon said consistently subdued performances have affected how business leaders were feeling.
"The longer businesses go not performing well, cash flow becomes more of an issue and, of course, that filters through the economy into market demand, consumer demand, which of course then has an impact on business performance as well," she said.
Tourism business leaders showed the biggest decline in positivity, followed by retail, while construction sentiment remained low.
BDO said the sectors continued to be affected by the high cost of living and inflation weighing on consumer demand.
A decline in cruise ship passenger numbers also affected the tourism sector.
BDO said agribusiness leaders showed the strongest sentiment on the back of better conditions in dairy, sheep and beef, and kiwifruit sectors.
The report said the overall outlook also looked subdued.
The survey showed 56 percent of business leaders expected to feel positive about performance in six months time -- down 10 percentage points from earlier this year.
"Business leaders aren't expecting things to get a lot better in the next six months," Symon said.
"What I would say is the survey was carried out before the latest round of OCR cuts and there are indicators there will be further cuts so it will be good to see those start to filter through."
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