Australian business owners at their most confident since December 2010

Australian business owners are at their most confident since December 2010, according to the October 2013 ACCI Survey of Investor Confidence from the Australian Chamber of Commerce (ACCI) and Industry on Monday. "We are continuing to see this improvement in expectations flying from a new government and a new administration with different economic agenda," chamber chief economist Greg Evans said in Canberra. However, an improvement in actual trading conditions was more modest. The survey's expectation index rose to 59.2 points in the September quarter from 55.7 points in the previous three months, while the actual conditions index crept up to 50.8 points from 49. 9 points. The ACCI confirmed in its statement on Monday that despite the welcome improvement in business expectations, from past experience, this optimism is unlikely to translate into actual outcomes over the coming months given the continued weakness in current trading conditions. According to the ACCI, while the current index of Own Business Conditions moved into positive territory for the first time in more than two years, Sales and Profitability remained relatively unchanged in negative territory over the September quarter. Nonetheless, forward projections for these indicators for the December quarter have improved significantly to their highest level since December 2010. Greg Evans said in the statement business still faces some fairly stiff economic headwinds in terms of international uncertainty, an Australian economy that is expected to continue to grow below trend and an unemployment rate that could go above six percent in 2014.