This driven by decreases in sentiment regarding personal finances
ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence has dipped 3.4pts to 75 this week, marking the 23rd consecutive week that the figure was below the 80 mark and beating the longest streak on record of 22 weeks from September 1990 to January 1991, when the index was held on a monthly basis.
“ANZ-Roy Morgan Australian Consumer Confidence declined last week, despite the RBA decision to keep the cash rate on hold,” said Adelaide Timbrell (pictured above), ANZ senior economist.
“Homeowners with debt still have far lower confidence than other cohorts, as restrictive interest rates squeeze cashflows of indebted households… Average confidence fell among all the housing cohorts, but the biggest fall was among renters (-9.4pts) after a jump in the previous week.”
Consumer confidence was down 5.3pts compared to the same week a year ago (80.3) and was up 3.2pts than the 2023 weekly average of 78.2.
Across the states, consumer confidence declined in all five mainland states, with WA ending the week with the highest average confidence while QLD had the lowest.
Driving the index down this week were decreases in sentiment regarding personal finances both compared to a year ago and expectations over the next year. Now just 17% of Australians (down 3ppts) said their families were “better off” financially than this time last year compared to a new record-high majority of 57% (up 4ppts) who reported their families were “worse off” financially.
Meanwhile, the number of Australians who expected their families to be “better off” financially this time next year was down 5ppts to 28%, compared to 38% (up 4ppts) who expected to be “worse off.”
Australians who were expecting “good times” for the Australian economy over the next 12 months slipped 1ppt to just 6%, compared to 38% (unchanged) of those who expected bad times. There was a slight uptick in sentiment regarding the Australian economy in the long term, with 11% (up 1ppt) of Australians expecting “good times” for the economy over the next five years, while 19% (down 1ppt) were expecting “bad times.”
Fewer Australians believed now was the time to buy a major household item, with 19% (down 2ppts) saying now was a “good time to buy” compared to a clear majority of 54% (unchanged) who said now was a “bad time to buy,” the ANZ-Roy Morgan Australian Consumer Confidence showed.
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