Deteriorating business confidence in New Zealand has led economists from the retail banks there to call on the Reserve Bank of NZ to delay any increases in the official cash rate, or even to cut further. The latest NZIER business confidence figures released yesterday showed a net 19 per cent of companies expect an economic deterioration for the second half of the year (up from 10 per cent last quarter). This follows poor results in the ANZ business confidence survey, making it more likely the RBNZ will address the issue in the next MPS on August 9.