The Westpac-Melbourne Institute Consumer Sentiment index for November has fallen 6.9 per cent to 78 points, now sitting below the lowest point of the global financial crisis.

Westpac says that family finances are strained, inflation keeps rocketing and consumers have reacted strongly to the recent Labor Budget.

At 78 points, sentiment dropped below the 79-point-low since during the GFC and sits just higher than April 2020’s 75.6 points, at the peak of pandemic panic.

“The Budget looks to have been poorly received in terms of its immediate support for household finances,” Westpac chief economist Bill Evans notes.

“The proportion responding that the October Budget has worsened their financial outlook was a historically high 35 per cent.

“While that is well short of the 58 per cent recorded following the newly elected Coalition government’s ‘horror’ budget of 2014, it is the second highest since then and well above the 14-year average of 30 per cent.”

Despite the ARA’s forecast of a record $64 billion spend in Australia this Christmas, Evans says spending plans are “very subdued this year”, with the Westpac figures showing 40 per cent of Aussies expect to spend less on presents this year.