Consumer confidence rises

Consumer confidence increased 1.5 per cent last week, driven primarily by the boost in confidence in financial conditions. The rest of the subindices registered mixed results.

‘Current financial conditions’ rose by 4.6 per cent, with only 23 per cent of responders voting that they are ‘worse off’ financially than this time last year. This is the lowest figure for this indicator since February 2020. ‘Future financial conditions’ were up 3.3 per cent.

In contrast, ‘current economic conditions’ fell by 0.8 per cent. However, ‘future economic conditions’ gained 1.9 per cent.

‘Time to buy a major household item’ declined 0.7 per cent. ‘Weekly inflation expectations’ increased by 0.1ppt to 3.7 per cent, keeping the four-week moving average steady at 3.7 per cent.

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"Consumer confidence gained 1.5 per cent last week. The gain was driven in a large part by the improvement in the ‘financial conditions’." ANZ Head of Australian Economics, David Plank said.

"The labour market numbers might have had a positive influence, with unemployment dropping to 5.5 per cent and underemployment dropping to 7.8 per cent."

"Consumer confidence may be challenged by the emergence of new COVID-19 cases in Melbourne. However, we know the impact on sentiment is temporary if the outbreak is quickly brought under control."

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