Mar 09, 2021
March 31, 2021
Consumer confidence pulls back
Headline consumer confidence jumped 1.7 per cent to 112.3, its highest level since October 2019. All but one of the subindices registered gains.
‘Current financial conditions’ gained 4.4 per cent, while ‘future financial conditions’ rose 4.1 per cent - its largest weekly gain since August last year.
‘Current economic conditions’ gained 0.5 per cent after two consecutive weeks of decline. In contrast, ‘future economic conditions’ declined for a third time (by 2.1 per cent).
‘Time to buy a major household item’ rose 1.2 per cent. ‘Weekly inflation expectations’ fell 0.1 per cent to 3.7 per cent, but the four-week moving average remained steady at 3.8 per cent.
"Consumer confidence recovered with a gain of 1.7 per cent as the weather improved along the east coast, after heavy rainfall and floods wreaked havoc," ANZ Head of Australian Economics David Plank said.
"Confidence rose sharply in Queensland, with a gain of 10.5 per cent in Brisbane and 6.7 per cent in the rest of the state. Sentiment in Queensland may be tested by the emergence of a COVID-19 cluster in Brisbane."
"NSW was more subdued, with confidence down 0.3 per cent - reflecting perhaps the ongoing impact of the flooding and the sad news that two lives were lost."
"The rise in overall confidence to almost its long-run average is encouraging and points to the end of JobKeeper being successfully navigated overall, if not without some difficult individual circumstances.
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