ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence has dipped by 1.3 points to 83.1 this week after last week’s big jump of 5.9 points – the largest in over three years since mid-April 2021.
The index is still above the 2024 weekly average of 81.8, and is 4.7 points above the same week a year ago.
Despite this elevation, consumer confidence has now spent a record 78 straight weeks below the mark of 85 - equivalent to 18 months.
ANZ economist Madeline Dunk said the fact that consumer confidence held onto most of last week’s sizeable gain suggests households may be seeing the benefits of the Stage 3 tax cuts.
“Particularly as the biggest improvement has been in households’ confidence in their own financial situation,” Dunk said. “Relative to two weeks ago, households’ confidence in their current financial position has risen 5.1pts, while confidence in their financial position in a year’s time is up 5.8pts.
“Over this period, confidence has increased most for those who own their homes outright (+6.8pts), followed by renters (+3.1pts) and those paying off a mortgage (+1.6pts).”
There were decreases in most states across Australia, including New South Wales, Queensland, and South Australia. The index was unchanged in Victoria and went against the trend with an increase in Western Australia.
The largest movement in the index was the question dealing with the Australian economy’s performance over the next year, which dipped significantly and gave up most of last week’s gains.
Now just over a fifth of Australians (21 per cent - down 1ppt), say their families are ‘better off’ financially than this time last year compared to 49 per cent (unchanged) that say their families are ‘worse off’.
Just under a third of Australians (32 per cent - down 1ppt) expect their family to be ‘better off’ financially this time next year while only 31 per cent (down 1ppt) are expecting to be ‘worse off’.
Fewer than one-in-ten Australians (9 per cent - down 3ppts) expect ‘good times’ for the Australian economy over the next twelve months compared to 35 per cent (up 2ppts) that expect ‘bad times’.
Net sentiment regarding the Australian economy in the longer term was relatively unchanged this week with 12 per cent (down 1ppt) of Australians expecting ‘good times’ for the economy over the next five years compared to 19 per cent (down 1ppt) expecting ‘bad times’.
Buying intentions were virtually unchanged this week with 23 per cent (unchanged) saying now is a ‘good time to buy’ major household items compared to a large plurality of 48 per cent (up 1ppt) that say now is a ‘bad time to buy’ major household items.