Business confidence in Australia in October showed a slight improvement, according to the latest Roy Morgan Research 'Business Confidence' survey.
The increase in confidence was a result of an improved outlook for both the individual businesses and the general economy, leading to more businesses considering the next 12 months would be a "good time" to invest in growing their business, said Roy Morgan CEO Gary Morgan.
The improvement in business confidence was not uniform across all industries, with the biggest increase being among those in construction, accommodation/food, health care/social assistance and finance/insurance. Mining continued to lead those industries where confidence declined, with retail and manufacturing also falling back.
"The much publicised end of the mining boom is obviously having an impact across the whole Australian economy but there have been some positive signs in October to partly counter this," Morgan said.
The Reserve Bank's decision to lower the official cash rate by 25 basis points in October was to counter the weaker outlook over the coming year and this appears to have had some positive impact on business confidence for the next 12 months.
The Morgan survey covers 2500 businesses every month.
