South West QLD business confidence up, but conditions expected to remain tough
Chamber of Commerce & Industry Queensland Pulse Survey of Business Conditions March Quarter 2009
20 May
Following the state-wide trend, businesses in South West Queensland have regained a small amount of confidence in the performance of the domestic economy over the three months to March 2009.
CCIQ South West Queensland Regional Chair, Ian Sainsbury, said while this has lifted confidence levels off their recent record lows, they still remain at historically low levels.
"Over 66 per cent of the South West Queensland businesses surveyed expect national and state economic conditions to deteriorate over the coming year," Mr Sainsbury said.
"It is not clear whether the slight rebound in confidence is fleeting or the beginning of a sustained recovery, as it can more than likely be attributed to the recent economic stimulus measures, coupled with the lowest interest rates in a generation.
Both of which are likely to have provided temporary support to the sales levels of some businesses and this will have positively influenced confidence levels," Mr Sainsbury said.
South West Queensland businesses continue to believe that global economic conditions will be the major influence on the domestic economy over the coming year.
"At this stage, businesses remain of the view that the impact will be negative with the global economic slowdown continuing to depress demand and economic growth," Mr Sainsbury said.
Consistent with the current economic downturn, all of the major indicators - sales & revenue, profitability, employment and capital expenditure - remain at unsatisfactory levels.
Over 53 per cent of South West businesses reported a fall in sales & revenue in the March quarter and 60 per cent reported weaker profitability. The slowdown in demand has begun to flow through to employment, with 21 per cent of businesses reporting a reduction in the size of their workforce over the three months to March 2009.
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