A cooling off of the resources boom, growing uncertainty and a weaker consumer spending rate have all failed to make a dent in Queensland’s Business Confidence, according to the new Westpac/CCIQ Survey of Business Conditions.

The report concluded that the National Business Confidence Index rose 2.6 points in the March quarter to end at 54.8.

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s (CCIQ) CEO, Stephen Tait, said that despite the growing sentiment of both state and national businesses, they were having a hard time of it converting confidence into results.

Businesses have reported that their on-going optimism remains strong however they are struggling to turn weak consumer confidence and uncertainty brought by a long federal election campaign into sales and revenue,” Mr Tait said.

“In addition their exposure to the ever increasing cost of doing business has led to a further squeezing of their margins and impacted on profitability.”

“Again Pulse has highlighted that consumer uncertainty impacts heavily on business performance, and that poor business profitability discourages investment in capital expenditure and a reluctance to expand workforces and employ.”

Westpac’s State General Manager Retail & Regional Banking Queensland, Michael Wright, said “Since the GFC consumers have focussed on clearing debt, consolidating finances and ensuring that there is a re-balance between borrowings, spending and savings.”

“Since the GFC this has led to a weakening in consumer spending, which has impacted upon the confidence of business.”

“However, we are witnessing a slight change in behaviour as consumers are now preparing to increase spend and investment. This is particularly true across property with industry insiders such as Valuers indicating the early stages of a recovery with buyers entering markets and beginning to borrow accordingly.”