2024 Confidence Remains Strong

Townsville’s Business Confidence remains strong heading into the new year as demonstrated in the PVW Partners’ March 2024 quarterly  Business Confidence Survey.  The March 2024 quarter resulted in an index of 5.6, an increase of 1.7.

Sonia Chalk, PVW Partners Partner said, “A new year can be a challenging time for businesses, as highlighted by recent weather events in particular, but our region continues to build on its confidence going into 2024. Whilst the region is still not back to the confidence levels recorded in 2021 and 2022 there is a continued upward trend in business confidence over the last 18 months”. 

Commencing in September 1991, PVW Partners Townsville Business Confidence Survey has now been running for over 30 years and is a unique measure of the levels of confidence of Townsville’s business community. The March 2024 survey was conducted prior to both TC Jasper and TC Kirrily.

Sonia Chalk observed “this quarter showed the expected trend of a decrease in entertainment, travel and advertising in the first quarter of the new year following the festive period.  Despite these expected decreases, business confidence has continued to grow particularly in the areas of sales and consumer demand which are returning close to the levels of confidence displayed during the 2021 and 2022 years.  In line with expected increases in sales and consumer demand is an expectation of an increase in employment with 90% of the survey’s respondents expecting to maintain or increase their employment levels”.

Sonia Chalk went onto comment “In addition to the above, capital expenditure by businesses remains strong and in alignment with the previous quarter which were both up from the September and June 2023 quarters.  The confidence in capital expenditure may be a result of interest rates now holding steady and greater clarity around the opportunities within our region for businesses to take advantage of.  This response was further backed up by the results to our additional question regarding the future of mining and its impact on the Townsville economy.  89% of our respondents say that mining will continue to have a similar if not larger and more active role in our economy into the future. These results are pleasing in the context of mixed announcements for our mining and minerals processing sector in 2023 – from the excitement of CopperString 2.0 to the concerns created by Glencore’s Mt Isa Mine.”.

Sonia Chalk concluded “whilst the region’s confidence has continued to be strong, the end of 2023 and start of 2024 brought two natural disasters to our Northern region. These events will inevitably have an economic impact to our region with grants and assistance already being announced to mitigate at least some of the effects these events have had.  In addition, with the federal budget looming, announced plans to revise the stage 3 tax cuts and local and state elections, 2024 is shaping up to be another evolving year which will require businesses to continue to build on the strong foundations from 2023 and to take advantage of opportunities that are currently within our region”.