SYDNEY, Oct 29 (Reuters) - New Zealand business sentiment brightened in October as success in containing the COVID-19 outbreak in the country allowed the economy to re-open and activity to pick up from very depressed levels, an ANZ Bank survey showed on Thursday.

The survey's headline measure showed a net 15.7% of respondents expected the economy to deteriorate over the year ahead, an improvement from 28.5% in September.

A net 4.7% of respondents expected their own businesses to improve in the next 12 months, a marked turnaround from September when 5.4% expected conditions to worsen.

Construction was the most optimistic sector, while agriculture and retail were the most downbeat.

(Reporting by Wayne Cole Editing by Shri Navaratnam)

((Wayne.Cole@thomsonreuters.com; 612 9171 7144; Reuters Messaging: wayne.cole.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))

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