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Small and medium sized businesses in the insurance and finance sector are the most confident in the country, according to research from marketing services firm Sensis.
The Sensis Business Index survey found that the insurance and finance sector had seen its confidence jump by 31 points and is now the most confident sector in Australia.
Libby Hay, director corporate affairs at Sensis, said that a number of factors had helped boost confidence numbers across the industry.
“There is a really strong pattern here that sales and profitability are doing well in the financial and insurance sector,” Hay told Insurance Business.
“For their current quarter expectations, in the December quarter, they also had above average sales net balance scores and the highest scores for profitability.”
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The insurance industry has had to deal with its fair share of negatives over the last several years with one of the toughest markets in recent memory hampering growth.
Now, with several markets reporting the beginnings of hardening it appears that the sector is on the rise. Sensis also found that the industry has the highest net balance economic growth expected in the next year at plus-23, compared with a plus-8 average across all other sectors.
“For the insurance and finance sector, for the next 12 months we see above average expectations for sales, wages, profitability, prices and capital expenditure, and also the highest net balance economic growth expected in the next 12 months,” Hay continued.
“Clearly, this is a sector that is really feeling positively about the year ahead and believes that there will be strong growth, which is a good sign.”
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