If the Business Expectations Survey of the NCAER is anything to go by, the next round of corporate profits will probably continue to remain strong. Just under 60 per cent of firms polled expected pre-tax profit over the next six months to rise. Though this is marginally lower than the 63 per cent in the last round of the survey, the proportion expecting profits to fall is down from 6.4 per cent in the last round, to 5.8 this time. There is, however, a sharp decline in the profit expectations of firms in the consumer durables sector. The prognosis on services is mixed "" less firms believe profits will rise (53 per cent versus 56.4 per cent last time), but those expecting profits to rise more than 10 per cent is up.
