Business and consumer confidence may have fallen, but investors remain upbeat.
Photo: NZX / Supplied
The ASB Bank's investor confidence index edged up 1 percentage point, with a net 21 percent of respondents expecting returns on their investments will improve in the coming year.
ASB senior wealth economist Chris Tennent-Brown said investors have enjoyed strong returns from markets and have not been distracted.
"The sharemarket last year had a great year and we're still at or near those levels and the volatility and political uncertainty we're seeing in global markets doesn't seem to be worrying investors," he said.
Property - the personal home and investment properties - remained the most favoured form of investment at around 20 percent, outstripping shares, and term deposits.
"People's confidence in property is unwavering. It's understandable based solely on historical returns, but right now it's somewhat surprising, considering all the uncertainty circling around property."
The survey showed about two-thirds of respondents were using KiwiSaver to save for their retirement, the highest proportion in the survey's history.
However, Mr Tennent-Brown said the surprise was that investors still had little knowledge and confidence in KiwiSaver.
"Whichever way you want to rationalise the decline in KiwiSaver understanding, the level of understanding is disappointingly low for a scheme that is 10 years old now, and for a scheme that is a key retirement savings vehicle for many people."
