Consumer confidence virtually unchanged

Consumer confidence decreased slightly by 0.4pts last week to 80. Among the mainland states, confidence increased only in NSW, while it was lower in Victoria, Queensland, SA and WA.

‘Weekly inflation expectations’ rose 0.1ppt to 5.2%. Its four-week moving average remained unchanged at 5.3%.

The subindex results were mixed. ‘Current financial conditions’ declined 0.7pts, while ‘future financial conditions’ were up 0.9pts.

‘Current economic conditions’ fell slightly by 0.3pts. ‘Future economic conditions’ softened 2.1pts after a 2.4pt fall the week before.

‘Time to buy a major household item’ was practically unchanged with a 0.1pt increase. 

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"Consumer confidence remained virtually unchanged last week with a slight fall from the week before," ANZ Senior Economist Adelaide Timbrell said. "This is the third consecutive week with confidence among the worst ten results since the COVID outbreak in Australia."

"Among those paying off their mortgage confidence dropped sharply (-4.4pts), to its lowest level since early April 2020 and to 11pts below the average for all housing cohorts."

"Confidence about current and future economic conditions are at their lowest level since November 2022, while current financial conditions was at its worst level since December 2022. Future financial conditions rose 0.9pts in the week."

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