New Zealand firms blamed government policy and rising labour costs for their gloomiest sentiment in nine years, according to the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research.

A seasonally adjusted net 28 percent of respondents to the quarterly survey of business opinion were pessimistic about the economic outlook, the worst reading in the survey since March 2009, when local markets hit rock-bottom following the global financial crisis. In March, a net 21 percent of firms were pessimistic.