ANZ-Roy Morgan’s weekly measure of consumer confidence rose 2.1% last week but is still a significant 17.7% below the same week a year ago, and 8.2% below the 2022 weekly average. Personal finances and economic performance steered the positive outlook.
Consumers in Queensland and South Australia were the most confident but were slightly less confident in NSW, Victoria and WA.
ANZ head of economics, David Plank, said the rise in confidence was despite inflation exceeding 6% in the year to June. “The sharp fall in petrol prices over the past three weeks may have been more important for sentiment and most likely explains why household inflation expectations fell to 5.5%.”
He said the only confidence subindex that decreased was ‘good time to buy a major household item’ with the ongoing weakness in the housing market and pressure on household budgets being the probable reasons. “Despite the gain in in the past three weeks, sentiment remains at a very low level and vulnerable to more tightening from the RBA,” he said.