BNZ's latest survey of readers of its weekly overview has identified a continued fall in business confidence.

The survey result is being seen as a failure of the economic recovery to live up to expectations.

Held every month, the survey results found confidence had fallen for the third month in a row.

A net 2% of respondents expected the economy to improve during the coming year, down from 26% in June.

BNZ chief economist Tony Alexander believes the most logical conclusion to draw from the data is that hesitance towards optimism was continuing following evidence a depression scenario had been avoided.