More businesses are becoming confident about their sales and profit expectations for the March 2010 quarter, the latest Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) survey shows.
The latest D&B Business Expectations Survey found that 46 percent of businesses expect an increase in sales for the March 2010 quarter, following the Christmas period. The sales index has risen a further four percentage points since the previous quarter, on top of a 50 percentage points rise in the previous quarter, the largest one-quarter rise in the history of the survey.
The profits index also made headway, with twenty eight percent of executives now anticipating profits will increase in the March quarter. Executives in the retail sector have the highest expectations, with 35 percent expecting profits to increase and 19 percent a decrease.
According to Dr Duncan Ironmonger, Dun & Bradstreet’s economic consultant, the latest D&B survey shows that the rates of growth of sales, profits, inventories and investment in the first quarter of 2010 are likely to be positive and well ahead of the relatively weak experience of 2009.
“The D&B survey supports the Reserve Bank’s latest opinion that in 2010 Australian economic growth is likely to be back up close to trend and that inflation will be back down close to the target rate of two to three percent,” he said.
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