{"id":616208,"date":"2026-09-30T09:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T09:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/616208\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T09:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T09:20:11","slug":"anz-business-outlook-survey-fuel-price-rises-dent-business-confidence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/616208\/","title":{"rendered":"ANZ Business Outlook survey: Fuel price rises dent business confidence"},"content":{"rendered":"Tension in the Strait of Hormuz saw oil prices rise steadily through September, passing back through US$100 a barrel on September 10.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the kiwi has fallen sharply against the US dollar, adding to the cost of fuel in local currency.<\/p>\n
Retail fuel prices have risen almost 22% in the past month according to industry website Gaspy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe bumpy recovery continues,\u201d Workman said.<\/p>\n
This month\u2019s survey suggested the lift in oil prices was having a renewed impact on confidence.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut activity indicators late month were nowhere near the lows plumbed in late March and into April,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEncouragingly for the RBNZ, inflation indicators were unmoved as the month went on, but it\u2019s very early days.\u201d<\/p>\n
Inflation expectations were steady at 3.25%, cost expectations were up one point to net 82% expecting higher costs, and pricing intentions eased three points to a net 48% expecting to raise prices.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow firms respond to the renewed uncertainty will have direct implications for how the economy rounds out 2026,\u201d Workman said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is real momentum in some sectors, but there are real headwinds too.\u201d<\/p>\n
The breakdown by sector showed manufacturing and construction heating up, but retail, services and agriculture cooling down, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThough for the latter it\u2019s important to recall the easing comes after an excellent couple of years in terms of both production and prices for the big agriculture sectors.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the month, as a whole, the survey continued to tell a story of recovering activity, Workman said.<\/p>\n
A good number of firms were reporting stronger activity than a year ago, he said.<\/p>\n
Liam Dann is business editor-at-large for the ew Zealand Herald. He is a senior writer and columnist, and also presents and produces videos and podcasts. He joined the Herald in 2003.<\/p>\n
Stay ahead with the latest market moves, corporate updates, and economic insights by subscribing to our Business newsletter<\/a> \u2013 your essential weekly round-up of all the business news you need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tension in the Strait of Hormuz saw oil prices rise steadily through September, passing back through US$100 a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12465,18464,1558,138,2950,117271,303594,2678,305,700,111,139,69,17695,3333,12937,26884,10042,801,418,68635,8822,5977],"class_list":["post-616208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-anz","tag-anzs","tag-been","tag-business","tag-confidence","tag-dent","tag-dented","tag-fuel","tag-have","tag-latest","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-outlook","tag-price","tag-prices","tag-recovering","tag-rises","tag-rising","tag-shows","tag-slowly","tag-survey","tag-which"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}