Hauraki will get through challenging economic times despite a significant drop in business confidence, its mayor says.

Hauraki District Council mayor Toby Adams said a drop in business confidence, outlined in a Te Waka Waikato Economic Development survey, reflected what he was hearing on the ground.

The April survey was presented to the Hauraki District Council community partnerships committee meeting on Wednesday, showing respondents’ net confidence in their own business dropped three points between November 2023 and April 2024.

While overall confidence levels were down, 43 per cent of respondents stated confidence in their own business performance, with 48 per cent expecting the Waikato regional economy to improve in the coming 12 months.

However, the majority of respondents were worried, with 30 per cent extremely worried about their business prospects in the next 12 months.

Pressure on business profitability had increased with 41 per cent of businesses reporting a decrease in profit in the past year compared to 35 per cent in November.

“Challenging times for our community of Hauraki is nothing new, we have had recessions, highway upgrades and Covid-19, but our community gets behind and supports businesses as they are important to us and the community,” Adams said.

Adams said he had read the 10-page report presented to the Wednesday meeting.

Views on key challenges facing the New Zealand economy and barriers to business growth were largely unchanged from the previous survey: cost pressures (cost of living, interest and inflation rates, wage costs, costs of capital), skills shortages, political uncertainty and housing affordability continued to top the list.

“I think if we keep shopping locally where we can, we will get through this,” Adams said.

In terms of infrastructure, transport was at the top of the list of concerns with 19 per cent of respondents indicating it was a barrier to business growth.

Maori and Pasifika businesses were more likely to have experienced a profit decline and less likely to have grown profits than the regional average.

At an industry level, businesses in the retail, tourism/accommodation/hospitality, and manufacturing sectors were most likely to have reported profit declines over the past 12 months.

The technology sector reported the most positive revenue performance, with 54 per cent reporting increased revenue and 26 per cent reporting a revenue decline.

Views on the performance of New Zealand’s economy had “markedly deteriorated” since the previous survey.

Net confidence in the nation’s current economic situated declined 19 points with nearly 60 per cent of businesses saying the current national economy was slowing down. The negative view was consistent across districts and industries.

Looking ahead, 37 per cent expected the economy to improve, down from 47 per cent in the previous survey.

When asked about the greatest challenges, cost pressures remained at the top while housing affordability had increased in prominence, with 40 per cent citing it in their top 10 challenges, up from 23 per cent in the previous survey.

Health topped the list of skills lacking in Waikato, followed by trades, education, leadership/team leaders, engineering, technology, manufacturing, agriculture, freight and hospitality.

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