Over the past month, a big leap has come in the business confidence, and the construction industry is on the top list of gaining optimism.

Nearly 34% of respondents hope to see an improvement in business conditions in the year ahead; with the statistics being up 16 percentage points from July, as displayed by the latest National Bank Business Outlook survey for August released this afternoon.

A total of 64% of respondents in the construction industry hope to see better times ahead, a level not seen since the early 1990s.

The survey also suggested an improvement in companies' own activity, with a net 26% hoping positive environment for their own business, which is close to a five-year high.

Cameron Bagrie, chief economist of National Bank said: "There is no doubt a better feel-good factor is developing, despite the unemployment rate moving up sharply."

It is good to note an improvement in all the survey indicators of the August survey. However, commercial construction intentions were the only indicator to have turned downwards.