The fourth-quarter Business Outlook Survey indicates that, while more businesses expect future sales growth to pick-up as they plan to increase investment in machinery and equipment, their modest hiring plans remained broadly unchanged. Overall, the survey results suggest that modest growth in business investment should partially offset the slowdown in the household sector, but won't be enough to prevent GDP growth to weaken from an estimated 2.0% last year, to only 1.2% this year.
Subscriber content
Read this in full, free
Start a free trial and use one of your 10 free starter credits to unlock this piece.