Australians' financial wellbeing increases in line with nation’s COVID recovery

New research released today showed that there were small signs of recovery in the Financial Wellbeing of Australians towards the end of last year.

The ANZ Roy Morgan Financial Wellbeing Indicator found that in December 2020 the nation’s financial wellbeing increased to 58.2 from 56.6 in November 2020 (on a scale of zero to 100).

This 1.6-point improvement comes as Australia recovered from its first economic recession in three decades much faster than first anticipated. 

Other insights from the ANZ Roy Morgan Financial Wellbeing Indicator, Post Covid-19, covering the nine months from April 2020 to Dec 2020, include:

• The changes to financial wellbeing have led to an increase in the size of both the ‘Struggling’ and ‘Getting By’ segments, with the ’No Worries’ segment shrinking.
• The impact of COVID-19 resulted in all states and territories recording lower scores in overall financial wellbeing.

The ANZ Roy Morgan Financial Wellbeing Indicator is based on the Roy Morgan Single Source survey of 50,000 Australians annually that assesses financial behaviours as well as the psychological, social and economic factors that contribute to financial wellbeing. ANZ releases the Indicator quarterly.

Future ANZ Roy Morgan Financial Indicator releases will continue to monitor the effects of COVID-19 on financial wellbeing which are anticipated to continue for some time, particularly for those segments of the community disproportionately impacted, such as small and micro business owners and occupations in exposed industries.

You can read the full Financial Wellbeing Indicator report on bluenotes.