The recent declines in ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence have stalled this week, remaining relatively unchanged at 84.2.
This was driven by a notable confidence boost in Queensland following the return to normal after the devastating Cyclone Alfred earlier in the month.
New South Wales and Victoria were virtually unchanged.
Consumer confidence is now 1.1 points above the same week a year ago, but is now 2.4 points below the 2025 weekly average of 86.6.
ANZ economist Sophia Angala said confidence rose slightly by just 0.4 percentage points from last week.
“The small gain was largely driven by the 2.4pt rise in the ‘time to buy a major household item’ subindex, which is now at its highest level since the beginning of the year. This may have been supported by sales events last week,” Angala said.
Afterpay held its sales event last week from March 20 to 23.
Angala added that global uncertainty may be weighing on confidence.
“On a four-week moving average basis, the series fell to its lowest level since October 2024,” she said. “Households are feeling less confident in their financial and economic conditions, with all financial and economic outlook subindices now sitting below their H2 2024 averages.”
A look across the index shows mixed results with the biggest movement being an increase in those saying ‘good time to buy’ to its highest since early February.
More than 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 (up 2ppts) that say their families are ‘worse off’.
Views on personal finances over the next year were virtually unchanged this week with 31 per cent of respondents (unchanged) expecting their family will be ‘better off’ financially this time next year while 32 per cent (down 1ppt) expect to be ‘worse off’.
Views on the economy over the next year were unchanged this week with 8 per cent of Australians expecting ‘good times’ for the Australian economy over the next twelve months compared to 32 per cent that expect ‘bad times’.
Sentiment regarding the Australian economy in the longer term was also virtually unchanged this week with just 11 per cent (up 1ppt) of Australians expecting ‘good times’ for the economy over the next five years compared to 20 per cent (down 1ppt) expecting ‘bad times’.
There was a small improvement in net buying intentions this week with only 26 per cent (up 2ppts) of Australians saying now is a ‘good time to buy’ major household items compared to 43 per cent (unchanged) that say now is a ‘bad time to buy major household items’.