New Zealand business confidence weakened notably in November amid acute inflationary pressures, survey results from ANZ showed on Wednesday.
The business sentiment index fell to -57.1 in November from -42.7 in the previous month.
The index measuring firms' expected activity fell 11 points from October to -14 in November, and residential construction intentions plummeted to a fresh record low.
Employment intentions were negative for the first time since Oct 2020, as the respective index fell to -4 from 5.
Inflation expectations rose to a fresh record high of 6.39 percent in November from 6.13 percent in the prior month.
The number of firms intending to raise their prices in the next three months declined by 6 points to a net 59 percent, which remains very high, ANZ said.
