Australian consumers are feeling the pinch, with confidence down 2.1 per cent this week, wiping out last week’s 1.1 per cent hike – a short-term result of the interest rate pause.
ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence was down to 77.2 this week, marking the seventh straight week the index has been below the mark of 80 – the last time Consumer Confidence spent at least seven weeks under 80 was during the 1990-91 recession.
Consumer confidence is a shocking 19.6 per cent lower than it was during the same week a year ago, and sits 3.8 per cent below the 2023 weekly average of 81.
ANZ Senior Economist, Adelaide Timbrell said: “Consumer confidence fell to its seventh weakest result since the COVID outbreak in March 2020, despite the RBA’s no-hike decision in April, rising housing prices and the low unemployment rate of 3.5 per cent.
“Though the confidence gap between homeowners with mortgages (the least confident cohort) and other housing cohorts was slightly less than average for the year. Confidence in the near-term future declined the most, with a 5.5pt drop in ‘future financial conditions’ and a 1.2pt drop in expectations of economic conditions over the next year.
“The subindex for whether it is a good ‘time to buy a major household item’ dropped to its lowest since April 2020. All subindices of confidence were lower than average for 2023.”
