An email survey has highlighted that farmers are experiencing a plunge in the confidence levels in the general economy from January, however, the levels are deemed to be significantly better compared to the same period witnessed the previous year, said the Federated Farmers.

The lowering confidence is believed to be the driver for the Reserve Bank’s inability to raise the official cash rate on Thursday.

The survey, conducted twice a year, discovered that 24.9% of farmers speculate that the economy will mark an improvement, 50.1% deemed it to remain on the same track, 22.1% found that it would mark a further fall, and 2.9% preferred to remain silent.

The lobby, highlighting the prospects concerning its own businesses to be highly similar to that of the wants of the farmers, quoted, "While farmers are still not overly optimistic about general economic conditions, they are more positive about the profitability of their own farms”.

It claimed that 41.4% of all farmers, and 60.3% of dairy farmers, cited their profitability to mark an improvement, while 32.3% speculated their farm profitability to show no change.

The survey claimed that dairy farmers showed their sheer optimism as a large proportion hopes to witness significant improvements in their farm’s profitability along with the economy as a whole.