ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence virtually unchanged at 106.8 as Melbourne’s sixth lockdown ends

ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence was virtually unchanged at 106.8 on the weekend. Consumer Confidence remains below the 2021 weekly average of 108.2 but is now 7.1 points higher than the same week a year ago, October 24/25, 2020 (99.7).

Consumer Confidence this week was up slightly in Victoria, and Melbourne, as the city began to re-open from its sixth lockdown, however, was down slightly in NSW and Sydney nearly two weeks after that city re-opened earlier in October.

This week’s small decrease was caused by fewer people expecting to be ‘better off’ financially this time next year which was slightly offset by more Australians saying now is a ‘good time to buy’ major household items.

Current financial conditions

• Now 28% (up 1ppt) of Australians say their families are ‘better off’ financially than this time last year compared to 28% (up 2ppts), that say their families are ‘worse off’ financially.

Future financial conditions

• A decreasing plurality of 37% (down 1ppt) of Australians expect their family to be ‘better off’ financially this time next year, compared to 17% (up 3ppts) that expect to be ‘worse off’ financially.

Current economic conditions

• An unchanged proportion of 19% of Australians expect ‘good times’ for the Australian economy over the next twelve months while 20% (unchanged), expect ‘bad times’.

Future economic conditions

• In the longer term, over a fifth of Australians, 21% (up 1ppt), are expecting ‘good times’ for the economy over the next five years compared to 16% (unchanged) expecting ‘bad times’.

Time to buy a major household item

• Buying intentions improved this week with 39% (up 2ppts) of Australians, saying now is a ‘good time to buy’ major household items while 29% (down 1ppt) say now is a ‘bad time to buy’.

ANZ Head of Australian Economics, David Plank, commented:

"The notable development this week is a 0.3ppt rise in ‘weekly inflation expectations’ to 5.0%. This is the subindex’s highest value since December 2014. The rise in average petrol prices of more than 10% nationally in the past two weeks likely had an impact on household perceptions of price increases. Consumer confidence softened 0.2% nationally even though Melbourne opened up after more than two months in lockdown. Confidence was up in the city by 1.2% and also across Victoria (1.5%). Sentiment remained positive in Queensland (0.7%) and South Australia (10.4%) but the overall outlook was dampened due to a fall in confidence in New South Wales (-1.8%) and Western Australia (-5.9%)."

Latest ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence Releases.

Related Research Reports

The latest Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence Monthly Report is available on the Roy Morgan Online Store. It provides demographic breakdowns for Age, Sex, State, Region (Capital Cities/ Country), Generations, Lifecycle, Socio-Economic Scale, Work Status, Occupation, Home Ownership, Voting Intention, Roy Morgan Value Segments and more

Consumer Confidence – Monthly Detailed Report in Australia.
Business Confidence – Monthly Detailed Report in Australia.
Consumer Banking Satisfaction - Monthly Report in Australia.

You can also view our monitor of Monthly Australian Unemployment & Under-employment Estimates.

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