An increase of 3.3pts.

Business confidence in Australia rose 3.3pts or 2.9% to 117.4 in December – the most positive response heading into a new year since 2013 with a majority of businesses, (57.3%) saying now is a ‘good time to invest in growing the business’ and 52.2% of businesses expecting ‘good times’ financially over the next 12 months and 49.8% saying the business will be ‘better off’ financially this time next year.

Furthermore, businesses are more confident about the performance of the Australian economy over the next year with 52.2% (up 2.5ppts) now expecting ‘good times’ for the Australian economy while 43.1% (down 1.1ppts) expect ‘bad times’.

Longer-term views on the Australian economy also increased in December with 52.2% (up 1.6ppts) expecting ‘good times’ for the Australian economy over the next five years and 40.5% (down 0.5ppts) now expecting ‘bad times’.

Business are slightly less confident about their own performance with 41.2% (down 1.2ppts) saying the business is ‘better off’ financially than this time last year compared to 28.0% (down 0.2ppts) that say the business is ‘worse off’. However, now 49.8% (up a large 5.8ppts) say the business will be ‘better off’ financially this time next year compared to 19.7% (down 0.6ppts) expecting the business to be ‘worse off’ this time next year – a net positive movement of 6.4ppts.

In addition an increasing majority of businesses, 57.3% (up 3ppts) are also positive the next 12 months will be a ‘good time to invest in growing the business’ – the highest figure for this indicator for two years, much higher than the 34.6% (down 2.3ppts) that say it will be a ‘bad time’.

Roy Morgan CEO, Michele Levine said, “Business confidence in December signals a positive end to 2017 after the Federal Government retained its governing majority with victory in the two key by-elections in Bennelong and New England. The second consecutive increase in Business confidence means the leading indicator is finishing a year at its highest point for four years since December 2013.”