ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence dropped 2.9 points to 85.5 this week after the end of the Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales weekend.
Despite the fall, consumer confidence is now 4.7 points above the same week a year ago, and is still above the 2024 weekly average of 82.9 by 2.6 points.
A look across the index shows the driver of this week’s decrease was a reduction in confidence about people’s personal financial situations compared to a year ago and looking forward into next year.
Now 22 per cent of Australians (down 1ppt) say their families are ‘better off’ financially than this time last year compared to 50 per cent (up 3ppts) that say their families are ‘worse off’.
Views on personal finances over the next year deteriorated this week with just under a third of respondents (32 per cent - down 2ppts) expecting their family to be ‘better off’ financially this time next year while only 33 per cent (up 4ppts) expect to be ‘worse off’.
Meanwhile, 9 per cent (up 1ppt) expect ‘good times’ for the Australian economy over the next twelve months compared to 31 per cent (up 2ppts) that expect ‘bad times’.
Net sentiment regarding the Australian economy in the longer term was challenged this week with 11 per cent (down 1ppt) of Australians expecting ‘good times’ for the economy over the next five years compared to 20 per cent (up 1ppt) expecting ‘bad times’.
Although there was a slight decline this week, buying intentions did not revert to their level of two weeks ago and were little changed, with 30 per cent (down 1ppt) of Australians saying now is a ‘good time to buy’ major household items compared to a plurality of 44 per cent (up 2ppts) that say now is a ‘bad time to buy major household items’.
ANZ economist Madeline Dunk said the fall also follows softer-than-expected Q3 GDP data, alongside the end of Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales.
“The biggest falls were in households’ confidence in their financial conditions, especially over the next 12 months,” Dunk said. “The ‘time to buy a major household item’ subindex declined 2.7pts following the conclusion of Black Friday sales events. That said, the subindex is still at its second strongest level since May 2022.
“After picking up a few weeks ago, inflation expectations have eased 0.5 percentage points over the past fortnight to 4.5 per cent. Inflation expectations have not been below 4.5 per cent since August 2021.
Looking at consumer confidence by state, there were decreases in New South Wales, Queensland, and Western Australia, but increases in Victoria and South Australia.