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Australia business conditions worst since pandemic, NAB survey says

The National Australia Bank (NAB) survey indicates that business conditions in Australia have deteriorated to their lowest level since the onset of the global health crisis, with the business conditions index dropping to +6 in May from +14 in April. This decline reflects a broad-based weakening across various sectors, with trading conditions, profitability, and employment all seeing significant reductions. Specifically, trading conditions fell from +23 to +10, profitability decreased from +14 to +5, and employment conditions went from +7 to +3. Despite these challenges, business confidence has slightly improved, moving from -3 to -2, suggesting a cautious optimism among businesses. However, the survey also highlighted ongoing pressures from high costs, with labor costs rising by 2.3% quarterly and purchase costs increasing by 1.9%. Retail price growth slowed to 1.1%, and there was a notable decrease in capacity utilization to 82.6%, indicating that businesses are not operating at full capacity.

Read the Full MSN Article at:
[ https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/australia-business-conditions-worst-since-pandemic-nab-survey-says/ar-AA1vz2si ]