In Charts: consumer confidence lifts to seven-month high

One less encouraging reason “current finances” confidence is likely trending up may be because the question asks participants to compare their current finances to a year ago, and inflation and interest rates were already a central issue for households in late 2022.

"One less encouraging reason ‘current finances’ confidence is likely trending up may be because the question asks participants to compare their current finances to a year ago.” – Adelaide Timbrell, ANZ Senior Economist.

 It may also reflect wage and employment growth over the last year, which have offset some effects of inflation and higher rates for many households.

Consumer confidence rose 1.9pts last week

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Consumer confidence rose 1.9 points last week, and the four-week moving average increased by 0.6 points.

Consumer confidence by housing cohorts

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Among the mainland states, confidence rose in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, while it fell in South Australia and Western Australia.

The ‘weekly inflation expectations’ index softened 0.1 percentage points to 5.1 per cent, while the four-week moving average stayed at 5.2 per cent.

‘Weekly inflation expectations’ four-week moving average remained at 5.2%

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Current financial conditions’ rose 3.2 points, moving above 70 for the first time since April. ‘Future financial conditions’ increased 1.7 points.

‘Future financial conditions’ gained 1.7pts

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‘Current economic conditions’ rose 1.0 points after two straight weeks of declines. ‘Future economic conditions’ gained 1.6 points. The ‘time to buy a major household item’ subindex improved 2.1 points.

‘Current economic conditions’ increased 1.0pt

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Adelaide Timbrell is a Senior Economist and Arindam Chakraborty is an Economist at ANZ Institutional.