WELLINGTON, Dec 19 (Reuters) - New Zealand business sentiment rose in December led by optimism in the construction sector, an ANZ Bank survey showed on Monday.
The survey's headline measure showed a net 21.7 percent of respondents expected the economy to improve over the year ahead, compared with a 20.5 percent optimism level in the previous poll.
A net 39.6 percent of respondents expected their own businesses to grow in the next 12 months, from 37.6 percent last month.
November's deadly earthquake had little impact with business confidence in the affected regions holding steady or rising.