The quarterly survey of business opinion, out this morning, is expected to provide some much-needed good economic news.
Bank of New Zealand economist Stephen Toplis said he regarded the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research's QSBO as the principal lead economic indicator for giving timely insight into many key areas.
"Despite the latest survey being conducted in a world full of worry, we think the odds of a solid-looking QSBO are fairly high - all the more so following last Friday's decent looking National Bank survey. But beware of the differences."
The QSBO activity indicators were unlikely to match those of the National Bank because the activity questions related to the next three months.
The National Bank activity questions related to the coming 12 months and tended to give a more positive result, he said.
Mr Toplis was expecting another solid showing in employment intentions in the QSBO, indicative of firms' general confidence in the outlook for the domestic economy.
He would also monitor the likes of the overtime worked as a guide to both extra activity in the near term as well as any hints to a more general tightening in the labour market.
Most important in that regard would be firms' assessment of the difficult in finding labour.
Skilled labour had already become harder to find.
"This has already put upward pressure on wages, and if not matched by productivity gains will quickly become an aggravating source of general inflationary pressure.
"To us, this is one of the more worrying areas to the economic outlook, inflation-wise," Mr Toplis said.
The next major assessment of the economy would come tomorrow with Fonterra's global dairy auction.
Global dairy prices had drifted lower at recent auctions.
