ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence was up 1.5 points to 86.8 this week following the handing down of the pre-election Federal Budget by Treasurer Jim Chalmers (Tuesday March 26) and after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the Federal Election.
Consumer confidence is now 4.9 points above the same week a year ago and is in line with the 2025 weekly average of 86.5.
A look across the index shows the driver of the weekly increase was more confidence about the performance of the Australian economy over the next year and next five years.
Just under a fifth of Australians (19 per cent – down 2ppts), say their families are ‘better off’ financially than this time last year compared to 45 per cent (unchanged) that say their families are ‘worse off’.
Three in ten respondents (30 per cent – up 2ppts) now expect their family will be ‘better off’ financially this time next year while 28 per cent (down 1ppt) expect to be ‘worse off’.
Views on the economy over the next year improved this week with 12 per cent (up 2ppts) expecting ‘good times’ for the Australian economy over the next twelve months – the highest figure for this indicator since July 2024 – compared to 28 per cent (down 2ppts) that expect ‘bad times’.
Net sentiment regarding the Australian economy in the longer term also strengthened this week with 13 per cent (up 1ppt) of Australians expecting ‘good times’ for the economy over the next five years compared to 20 per cent (down 4ppts) expecting ‘bad times’.
Despite the gains across other subindices, there was a small decline in net buying intentions this week with only 20 per cent (down 3ppts) of Australians saying now is a ‘good time to buy’ major household items compared to 39 per cent (unchanged) that say now is a ‘bad time to buy major household items’.
ANZ economist Sophia Angala said the 1.5 point increase also followed the cash rate hold announced by the Reserve Bank of Australia last week.
“The series is just 1.7pt higher than immediately before the RBA’s 25bp cut six weeks ago,” Angala said. “The lack of material increase in recent weeks may reflect recent global trade uncertainty, which has likely offset some of the upward pressure on confidence from stronger domestic economic conditions.
“It should be noted that last week’s survey period did not capture the weekend (5–6 April) and mostly occurred before the latest US tariff announcements.”