About those 'green shoots' of the recovery

Confidence falls for third month
Business confidence has taken an unmistakable turn for the worse, with the National Bank's survey falling for the third month in a row.

It is still in positive territory and pointing to the economy recording growth around 3 per cent for 2010.

"But this is down on the 4 per cent plus it was flagging a few months back," National Bank senior economist Khoon Goh said.

It is at its lowest level for a year and the rate at which confidence is going down is going up.

"The movements in this month's survey are beyond what could be put down to normal monthly volatility. The past three months have seen a clear change in direction," Goh said.

So the 'green shoots of the recovery' turned out to be the dried snot of recession. Nice to see the business community are getting over their medicated optimism and starting to understand the consumer culture has crashed and that it isn't business as usual. If only we could get that through to Key and the corporate business media who are focused on lying about the double dip than confronting it.