A Westpac-Melbourne Institute survey showed a bleak outlook for sales of major household items, saying the sub-index fell to the lowest rates seen since the 1970s.

Overall consumer sentiment sits at “extremely weak levels” for the second month running, remaining at 78.5 per cent.

“Runs of sub-80 reads have only been seen during the late 1980s/early 1990s recession and in the ‘banana republic’ period of concern in 1986, when the Australian dollar was in free-fall after the Federal government lost its triple-A rating,” said Bill Evans, Westpac’s chief economist.

“An emerging area of particular concern is the outlook for sales of major household items,” he notes.

The ‘time to buy a major household item’ sub-index fell 4 per cent to 74.9 in March, following a 10 per cent fall last month.

“Apart from two brief tumbles during the Global Financial Crisis, both monthly falls that were quickly reversed, this is the lowest read on this component in the history of the survey going back to 1974 – weaker than the poorest reads during the recessions of the mid 1970s, the early 1980s and the early 1990s.”