“It’s not surprising that confidence is down given what’s going on with interest rates, gas prices and other day-to-day costs of living,” he said. “Everything has gone up.”
John Risso, who runs a design, advertising and printing company based in western Sydney, said buying shares abroad was taking much longer and costing much more than before.
“A container of paper leaving Europe used to take six to eight weeks and cost about $2,000 per container, but now it takes three to four months and costs $14,000 per container in freight,” he said. “You just have to pass those costs.”
Risso said loading times from China were also much longer than before COVID-19.
Business NSW chief executive Daniel Hunter said businesses were feeling the effects of higher costs and an uncertain economic outlook.
“There is no denying that many families and businesses are feeling the impact of rising interest rates, higher prices, and there is some uncertainty about what is around the corner, but the green shoots are there,” he said. . “We have more people working in NSW since records began, well above pre-COVID-19 levels, and businesses continue to post strong sales in the retail sector. We should be confident that the fundamentals of the NSW economy remain strong. Above all, we must avoid talking ourselves into a recession.”
Charging
Separate measures of consumer confidence have also slumped recently amid rising inflation and rising interest rates. This month’s Westpac-Melbourne Institute Consumer Sentiment Index was on par with the lows reached during the pandemic and global financial crisis of 2009.
The Reserve Bank forecasts inflation to hover around 7.75 percent through 2022 and has raised interest rates four times since early May.
Business NSW’s quarterly survey also found that the majority of NSW businesses are in favor of property tax reforms. It showed that 62 percent supported the state government’s plan, announced in the June budget, to give first-time homebuyers the option of paying an annual property tax or stamp duty in advance on properties of up to $1.5 millions. The same proportion (62 percent) supported extending the scheme to all homebuyers.
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