Confidence amongst the country's manufacturers and exporters has risen dramatically but the lobby group representing them believes the sector is still weak, and could even get worse.
The New Zealand Manufacturers and Exporters Association's latest survey found net confidence jumped from zero to 18% between September and October, while members' sales rose 14.8% and exports rose by 36.5%. However, domestic sales fell 4.96%.
Association chief executive John Walley said the jump bucked the downward trend experienced during the past year and he feared the positive result could just be a blip.
"We've seen exports falling for a year and now we've seen that reverse and seen an increase," he said.
"We've seen domestic sales improving for the past six months or so and this month we've seen them go south, so the hope is that it's a blip in one case and not in the other but we probably think things are still quite weak."
Members were reporting weak results despite a strong manufacturing index, and that was because they were facing difficult currency conditions and market conditions, Mr Walley said.
The signs were it was likely to get worse, and markets were expected to continue to deteriorate, he said.
