Consumer confidence inches higher
Consumer confidence increased by 1.4 points last week, but remains low. Among the mainland states, confidence rose in Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia, while it fell in New South Wales.
‘Weekly inflation expectations’ declined 0.2 percentage points to 5.1 per cent, while its four-week moving average was unchanged at 5.2 per cent.
‘Current financial conditions’ jumped 7.9 points after a cumulative 9.4 points decline in the previous two weeks. ‘Future financial conditions’ rose 1 points.
‘Current economic conditions’ rose 0.1 points, while ‘future economic conditions’ fell 2.7 points offsetting the 2.6 points rise the week before.
‘Time to buy a major household item’ rose 1 points after a cumulative decline of 5.3 points over the previous three weeks.
"Consumer confidence improved a little last week, driven by improvements in confidence about current and future financial conditions," ANZ Senior Economist Adelaide Timbrell said.
"But confidence was still among the worst ten results since January 2020, seven of which have occurred between March and May of 2023. This highlights the impact of cost-of-living pressure and rising interest rates, despite low unemployment and an acceleration in annual wage growth to 3.7 per cent year on year in the first quarter.
"Confidence jumped for those renting (up 9.6 points), while it was down for those paying off their homes (down 3.7 points) and those who own their homes outright (down 1.8 points). Those paying off their homes have lower confidence than other housing cohorts."