Australia NAB Business Conditions Rise Marginally; Sentiment Weakens

(RTTNews) - Australia's business conditions improved marginally in February, while business sentiment deteriorated taking the index back into negative territory, survey data from the National Australia Bank showed on Tuesday.

The business conditions index rose marginally to 4 in February from 3 in January. Meanwhile, the business confidence index declined 6 points to -1, largely reversing the improvement seen in January.

Confidence decreased in February despite the improvement seen in the fourth quarter GDP data and the central bank's first rate cut, which suggests that businesses continue to be cautious about the outlook, NAB Chief Economist Alan Oster said.

Moreover, input cost pressures are a step above output price growth pointing to the ongoing challenges in the business sector even though economic activity showed some improvement in the second half of 2024, Oster added.