Business conditions have improved in all industries including retail other than personal & recreational services, the National Australia Bank’s monthly business survey for September revealed.
From August, business conditions moved up five points from -3 to 2.
Despite this, conditions continue to continue to remain at “depressed levels” in retail. This comes from looking specifically at retail where trading conditions for retail still sit at -10 points and profitability for the industry is -12 points.
Meanwhile, price inflation softened in September, increasing by 0.2 per cent, compared to a growth of 0.4 per cent in August.
“Retail prices were even more subdued, increasing by a quarterly rate of just 0.1 per cent in the month, from a soft 0.2 per cent in the previous month,” NAB said.
“The softer increase in retail price growth reflected a 0.1 percentage point decline in retail purchase cost inflation, suggesting that retailers continued to keep their margins relatively stable.”
On a positive note, retail business confidence still remains high with confidence levels reaching +3 points.
“Business confidence rebounded sharply in September, in line with better conditions and helped by the sharp depreciation of the AUD coupled with speculation that domestic interest rates will be reduced,” NAB said.