Last week's gross domestic product (GDP) report was comforting, coming in above expectations and pointing to the strongest improvement in 18 months. That was a welcome piece of good news, following a difficult February reporting season littered with cautious comments from management teams. In contrast, business confidence measures have rebounded strongly, which seems out of step with the downbeat tone we're seeing elsewhere. So what gives, and why are we getting mixed messages from some of our key economic indicators?