More than half of respondents to a survey of 1,200 Business News subscribers and users believe the state’s business environment deteriorated in the 2016 financial year.
And a significant number of them felt business had declined markedly, at 18 per cent of respondents – mainly CEOs, business owners and professionals.
Perhaps most surprising was that nearly a quarter of respondents thought business had improved.
The numbers come in a time when the state’s domestic economy is enduring a prolonged soft period.
State final demand has contracted for 10 consecutive quarters, meaning that the local economy, excluding international trade, has become smaller across the past 30 months.
In 2016-17, it is expected to contract a further 3.75 per cent, according to estimates in the May state budget, and by 0.25 per cent in the following financial year.
Including exports into the numbers paints a more positive picture, however, as iron ore and LNG shipping ramps up in the north.
Taking inflation out of the equation, gross state product (including trade) grew 1 per cent overall in 2015-16, the Department of Treasury estimates.
Net exports were 11.5 per cent higher and expected to grow 10 per cent in this financial year.
Growth of 1 per cent is still anaemic, however, explaining why only 24 per cent of respondents felt business had improved.
Just 3 per cent said it had improved ‘markedly’, while 21 per cent said it had ‘improved somewhat’. A further 24 per cent felt there had been no change.
National measures show confidence to be somewhat stronger than in WA, however. Roy Morgan’s business confidence survey showed a 6.8 per cent rise in the month of June, to 119.5 points.
That is moderately higher than June of 2015, when it was about 115 points.
