Consumer confidence remains steady
Consumer confidence increased slightly by 0.3 points last week to 87.7. Among the mainland states, confidence rose in Victoria and Western Australia, while it fell in New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia.
‘Weekly inflation expectations’ increased 0.4 percentage points to 5.4 per cent. Its moving average for the last four releases fell 0.1 percentage points to 5.6 per cent.
The confidence subindices results were mixed. ‘Current financial conditions’ gained 1.8 points, while ‘future financial conditions’ rose 0.7 points after an 8.3-point jump the week before.
‘Current economic conditions’ softened 0.7 points, while ‘future economic conditions’ rose a touch by 0.2 points. ‘Time to buy a major household item’ decreased slightly by 0.6 points.
“Consumer confidence increased very slightly by 0.3 points to 87.7 in the second week of the year.,” ANZ Senior Economist Adelaide Timbrell said.
"Confidence about ‘current economic conditions’ fell slightly, while households became more optimistic about their finances. The ‘financial situation next year’ sub-index rose to its highest since late April 2022, before increases in the cash rate began."
"It is worth noting, that stronger confidence is not necessarily a leading indicator of stronger spending. ANZ-observed spending data shows weaker spending in the first week of 2023 compared to the previous year."
"Household inflation expectations jumped 0.4 percentage points, but are still 0.5 percentage points lower than the end of last year."