Consumer Confidence at its lowest since March 2020

Consumer confidence fell 4.9 points last week to 68.5 points. The four-week moving average dropped 2.1 points to 74.8 points.

‘Weekly inflation expectations’ lifted 0.6 percentage points to 6.7 per cent, while the four-week moving average. rose 0.3 percentage points to 5.8 per cent.

‘Current financial conditions’ (over the last year) declined 7.8 points, while ‘future financial conditions’ (next 12 months) increased 0.8 points.

‘Short-term economic confidence’ (next 12 months) was down 8.0 points, and ‘medium-term economic confidence’ (next five years) fell 3.4 points.

The ‘time to buy a major household item’ subindex decreased 6.0 points.

Image

"At 68.5 points, the ANZ-Roy Morgan Australian Consumer Confidence is now at its lowest since March 2020, when the first pandemic lockdowns were announced," ANZ Economist, Sophia Angala commented.

"Households are increasingly pessimistic about the one-year and five-year outlooks for the economy, likely driven by geopolitical uncertainty and the shifting outlook for inflation and rates.

"Inflation expectations are still at their highest since November 2022, supported by the recent sharp rise in petrol prices. We expect the RBA Board to increase the cash rate by 25 basis points to 4.1 per cent in its decision today. With inflation above target and the labour market viewed as tight by the RBA, there is likely to be less tolerance than usual to an external inflation shock, in this case from higher oil prices." 

Download report

For media enquiries contact:

Siobhan Jordan

Senior External Communications Manager

Tel: +61 403 988 326