Weekly inflation expectations also fall
Consumer confidence in Australia experienced a notable decline last week, dropping by 2.3 points to 79 points, according to the latest ANZ-Roy Morgan Australian Consumer Confidence report.
Despite this, the four-week moving average saw a slight increase of 0.5 points, reaching 80.3 points.
Weekly inflation expectations fell by 0.3 percentage points to 4.9%, while the four-week moving average inched up to 5%.
Current financial conditions over the past year decreased by 4.7 points, whereas future financial conditions for the next 12 months improved by 1.2 points.
Short-term economic confidence for the next 12 months saw a modest rise of 0.6 points, and medium-term economic confidence for the next five years increased by 0.3 points.
The “time to buy a major household item” subindex experienced a significant drop of nine points.
“ANZ-Roy Morgan Australian Consumer Confidence dropped to its second lowest level for the year,” said Madeline Dunk (pictured above), economist at ANZ. “The decline was driven by a nine-point fall in the ‘time to buy a major household item’ subindex, following the conclusion of end-of-financial year sales. This was the largest weekly fall in the subindex since February 2023. There was also a 4.7-point drop in ‘current financial conditions’.
“Across the housing cohorts, confidence declined most for those paying off a mortgage, perhaps due to talk about the possibility of an RBA rate hike in August. Confidence also fell for households that own their homes outright, while it was broadly stable for renters.”
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