The December quarter edition of the timely and very useful CCIQ-Westpac Pulse Report released yesterday confirms reasonably high levels of confidence among Queensland businesses and a continuing improvement in business conditions. While CCIQ considers confidence is no longer running ahead of business conditions (see the CCIQ media release), I’m unsure if this is the case. Charts in the Pulse Report show confidence and forecasts of business conditions are relatively high, but actual current business conditions are only average (and profitability remains weak):
That said, the story told in the Pulse Report about improving confidence among Queensland businesses strikes me as true given what I’m hearing around town. Whether that confidence holds up will depend on whether actual conditions continue to improve over the coming months.
On the disconnect between confidence and performance at a regional level, see Pete Faulkner’s commentary on the Pulse report for the Far North:
On other economic news, retail turnover continues to grow at a reasonable rate, although slower than in other States, as summarised in Queensland Treasury’s information brief on the latest ABS data:
Queensland Economy Watch 