Western Australian exporters are the most optimistic in the nation despite WA being the state most affected by rising oil and fuel costs, a recent survey has found.
According to the latest DHL Export Barometer, 70 per cent of exporters in WA anticipate an increase in orders over the next 12 months.
This result is in contrast to the November 2004 survey, which at the time considered South Australia and the Northern Territory as the most optimistic states.
In total, 308 Australian exporters took part in the telephone survey.
Compared with the other states, a higher proportion of WA exporters expect an increase in profitability (68 per cent) and employee wages (84 per cent) over the next year.
In the near-term, Victoria and Tasmania are the most optimistic, the survey says, with 55 per cent expecting an increase in orders over the next three months, followed closely by WA exporters at 53 per cent.
Nationally, more exporters interviewed for the survey anticipated that the negative effect of higher oil and fuel prices would have a larger impact than exchange rates (52 per cent).
Just 16 per cent of exporters said that a stronger Australian dollar would affect their future investment and business expansion plans.
High oil and fuel prices were expected to affect mining and tourism operators the most (70 per cent of those surveyed) over the next year, with WA the most affected state at 74 per cent.
Despite much interest in the impact of infrastructure capacity constraints, manufacturing capacity was considered the most important to those surveyed, at 41 per cent, as opposed to infrastructure, at 32 per cent.
