SME confidence in NSW Victoria sees spike

Moula chief executive Aris Allegos said data collected from surveys across 22,000 businesses has revealed that SME confidence has increased the most in NSW and Victoria, while confidence has seen a sharp fall in Western Australia and South Australia.

“We’ve seen that across our loan data as well; the appetite to borrow has increased sharply this quarter in NSW, whereas in WA and SA things clearly aren’t as rosy as they are on the eastern seaboard.”

“This is mostly a function of the sectors that are relevant within those spaces; WA is very much a function of the mining sector. When we first started business there was still a little bit of life in that sector, we had [businesses such as] cafes that service the mining towns coming in and borrowing -we don’t see as much of that these days.”

Mr Allegos said there isn’t the growth to justify borrowing at the moment with these types of businesses.

He said he is confident there will be an uptick in those states that are dependent on coal or dependent on iron ore, however.

“From a macroeconomic perspective, things are getting a bit better in that space, but there’s obviously a lag, but I’m sure the data will start to show an improvement as that mining cycle starts to see a bit of an uptick,” he said.