Consumer confidence: another small gain

Consumer confidence rose 0.4pts last week. The four-week moving average was up 0.2pts.

‘Weekly inflation expectations’ decreased 0.1ppt to 5.1%, while the four-week moving average was unchanged at 5.0%.

‘Current financial conditions’ declined 2.7pts to its lowest level since the start of the year.

‘Future financial conditions’ rose 1.1pts.

‘Short term economic confidence’ (about the economic outlook over the next 12 months) increased 1.6pts.

‘Medium term economic confidence’ (about the economic outlook over the next five years) gained 2.8pts.

The ‘time to buy a major household item’ subindex decreased 0.8pts.

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ANZ Senior Economist, Adelaide Timbrell said: “ANZ-Roy Morgan Australian Consumer Confidence has hovered around a tight range of 82.8–84.8 since the beginning of the year. While this is higher than from mid-February to December 2023, the trend over the last eight weeks has been broadly sideways.

"We expect a material increase in confidence may be triggered by improving household finances, which we expect to see as wages continue to outpace inflation, as they did in Q4, and then further once tax cuts are implemented. There is some optimism about ‘future financial conditions,’ which remained above the neutral 100-level last week.”

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