The latest NAB Monthly Business Survey for March 2025 was released this week, showing the business confidence across Australia's vast set of industries.
Stepping back, it would have been hard to have missed the global calamity in financial markets this past week or so. All kinds of wild predictions have been made, both to the upside and downside.
That said, business conditions have remained steady here in Australia over the past month, though slightly below the long-run average, and with a mixed bag of results across industries.
Let's break down what the survey revealed about the state of Aussie business.
Key takeaways from the Business Confidence Survey
According to the report, published earlier this week, business confidence slightly eased in March, continuing to sit in negative territory.
The 'confidence' in business confidence is measured via a survey sent out to Aussie firms, and measures a range of factors, including trading conditions, profitability, and employment to name a few.
As for the survey, findings showed the overall business conditions remained largely unchanged.
Business conditions were largely unchanged in March and remain a little below average. An uptick in profitability in the
month was mostly offset by slightly lower trading conditions and employment. Confidence eased slightly and remains
in negative territory.Elsewhere, most survey measures were fairly steady, with +1pt improvements in forward orders
and capex.
The survey also found that confidence across industries showed a mixed picture, with conditions "improved in all industries except construction, retail and recreation & personal services".
Mining, meanwhile, saw a "significant" gain in confidence for the month.
So, overall business confidence is marginally down. But more broadly, economic conditions indicate that businesses are still cautious about the future.
In fact, optimism amongst Aussie businesses is well below its long-term averages.
Dr Sally Auld, National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB)'s chief economist, said that confidence had remained "in negative territory" even before the reciprocal tariffs placed by the U.S. Administration this month.
Dr Auld notes this could have a further impact on business sentiment in the coming months.
What's next?
While overall conditions are stable, the mixed confidence across different industries is a talking point.
Interestingly, we saw a jump in capacity utilisation from the survey results. Auld stated that activity "remains robust", even if economic growth has been subdued.
Dr Auld also said businesses are cautiously treading water right now, with little visibility on the near-term future.
Businesses remain cautious about the outlook, with confidence and conditions both below average. We will be looking to see how recent tariff announcements flow through to business sentiment in upcoming surveys.
Future surveys will likely provide more clarity on how these developments impact business confidence moving forward.
Foolish takeaway
Business confidence is clearly a bit choppy at the moment, as confirmed by the latest NAB Business Confidence survey.
Despite the modest improvements in key metrics, the overall sentiment is mixed. That's fitting with the times. Indeed, uncertainty is this week's buzzword.
What will be interesting is the next survey from NAB gauging how Aussie business is faring, and what it sees moving forward. By then, we'd have had a full month after US tariffs were announced.
Time will tell what happens from here. At the time of writing, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is up 5%, a sharp rebound from this month's sell-off.
