*Watch the full interview in the video player above*
The debate over how New Zealand businesses are feeling about the future has raged since the ANZ survey in May showed that nearly a third of businesses are now pessimistic.
Economic Development Minister David Parker described the survey results as “junk”.
The ANZ’s former chief economist, who now runs his own consultancy, weighed in with “I think those surveys are poor barometers” and “you should throw them away”.
Software accounting company Xero says its business data shows small businesses have been booming and are still doing very well.
Yellow, which regularly surveys the large number of small businesses in its 50,000-customer base says there is a strong positive sentiment among SMEs.
Yellow CEO Darren Linton says a recent survey of customers with businesses less than five years old were feeling more positive about the performance of their own companies than they were of the economy in general.
“Seven in 10 businesses felt their financial position was positive (either on target, or ahead of target), and a further seven in 10 are expecting the rest of the year to pan out in a similar nature. Although still positive, we found that around six in 10 are expecting the economy in general to grow, or remain in line with where it is currently”.
Linton told Newsroom that confidence was higher outside the metro region.
In the full video interview (see above) Linton also spoke to Mark Jennings about the company’s transformation from producing the Yellow and White pages to being a provider of digital services for SMEs.
Linton said his company had been discussing with Government different ways of meeting its obligation to produce paper versions of the White Pages for all New Zealand households.
