In Australia, April’s [B]Business Confidence[/B] was little changed from the previous month’s result, printing at -14 versus -13 in March according to National Australia Bank. The metric set a record low at -32 in January. NAB chief economist Alan Oster said that “confidence levels have stabilized significantly” and speculated that “a moderate return to [economic] growth” was possible if sentiment holds at current levels through the second quarter. Still, Oster remained cautious, noting that “future expectations [are] at record lows” and forecasting that the jobless rate would rise to 6.75% this year and reach around 8% by 2010 despite a notable upswing in April’s data. For its part, the Reserve Bank of Australia has argued that existing monetary and fiscal policy measures will adequately support economic recovery.