Consumer Confidence slightly higher

Consumer confidence rose by 0.6 per cent last week, its eighth gain in the last nine weeks. There was an increase in confidence in Sydney, Perth and Adelaide, which was partially offset by declines in Melbourne and Brisbane.

‘Weekly inflation expectations’ remained elevated at 4.9 per cent and its four- week moving average rose 0.1ppt to 4.9 per cent.

Four out of the five confidence subindices registered gains. ‘Current financial conditions’ dropped 0.9 per cent after a 6.5 per cent jump last week. ‘Future financial conditions’ rose 2.0 per cent.

‘Current economic conditions’ saw a small gain of 0.3 per cent, while ‘future economic conditions’ increased 1.5 per cent.

‘Time to buy a major household item’ was practically unchanged with a rise of just 0.1 per cent.

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"Consumer confidence increased 0.6 per cent last week." ANZ Head of Australian Economics, David Plank said.

"There was an improvement in Sydney (4.1 per cent), but confidence declined in regional NSW (-1.0 per cent). Confidence in Melbourne dropped -4.4 per cent, while for the rest of Victoria it was up 9.4 per cent. Among the other states, confidence declined in Queensland (-6.0 per cent) but rose in South Australia (5.2 per cent) and Western Australia (11.9 per cent). Since its recent low in early August, consumer confidence is up a touch over 10 per cent and is getting close to its long-run average. There is quite a divergence across states, with sentiment unsurprisingly highest in WA but now lowest in Queensland."

"While the four-week average for inflation expectations edged higher, the weekly reading hasn’t shown any real upward movement since September’s jump."

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