ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence drops 2.4pts to 106.0 in the first week of 2022
ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence dropped 2.4pts to 106.0 during the first week of January, and is now 2.9 pts below the same week a year ago, January 9/10, 2021 (108.9).
ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence dropped 2.4pts to 106.0 during the first week of January, and is now 2.9 pts below the same week a year ago, January 9/10, 2021 (108.9).
The small drop in Consumer Confidence follows a surge in cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 cases over the last few weeks with tens of thousands of cases in NSW, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia causing many problems for businesses with staff forced to isolate due to catching COVID-19 or because of being a close contact. The surge in cases has likely contributed to the small decline in Consumer Confidence in the first week of January, a week in which Consumer Confidence normally increases to start the new year.
Consumer Confidence this week was down in all states, particularly in South Australia (-11.8pts). Driving the decrease were negative movements in relation to current economic conditions and buying intentions going forward.
Current financial conditions
- Now 30% (down 2 ppts) of Australians say their families are ‘better off’ financially than this time last year compared to 23% (down 4ppts), that say their families are ‘worse off’ financially.
Future financial conditions
- 38% of Australians (unchanged) expect their family to be ‘better off’ financially this time next year, compared to 16% (unchanged) that expect to be ‘worse off’ financially.
Current economic conditions
- Now 14% (down 5ppts), of Australians expect ‘good times’ for the Australian economy over the next twelve months compared to 24% (up 4ppts), that expect ‘bad times’.
Future economic conditions
- In the longer term, just over a fifth of Australians, 21% (unchanged), 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 decreased this week, with 38% (down 3ppts) of Australians, saying now is a ‘good time to buy’ major household items while 32% (up 2ppts) say now is a ‘bad time to buy’.
ANZ Head of Australian Economics, David Plank, commented:
Consumer confidence began the year on a downbeat note, with a decline of 2.2% compared to the pre-Christmas level. The rapid rise of Omicron cases across Australia is likely responsible for the dampened outlook in the first week of January. Confidence fell in all the major capitals, with Adelaide faring the worst. Over the decade from 2011 to 2020, consumer confidence has risen 2.6% on average in the first survey of January compared to the last prior to Christmas. So this result is even weaker than it seems. Consistent with the drop in confidence, ANZ-observed spending is at its lowest level since the Delta lockdowns. The good news is that people are still relatively happy about their own financial circumstances. This potentially sets things up for a rapid rebound once people are more confident about health outcomes.”
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
Margin of Error
The margin of error to be allowed for in any estimate depends mainly on the number of interviews on which it is based. Margin of error gives indications of the likely range within which estimates would be 95% likely to fall, expressed as the number of percentage points above or below the actual estimate. Allowance for design effects (such as stratification and weighting) should be made as appropriate.
| Sample Size | Percentage Estimate |
| 40% – 60% | 25% or 75% | 10% or 90% | 5% or 95% | |
| 1,000 | ±3.0 | ±2.7 | ±1.9 | ±1.3 |
| 5,000 | ±1.4 | ±1.2 | ±0.8 | ±0.6 |
| 7,500 | ±1.1 | ±1.0 | ±0.7 | ±0.5 |
| 10,000 | ±1.0 | ±0.9 | ±0.6 | ±0.4 |
| 20,000 | ±0.7 | ±0.6 | ±0.4 | ±0.3 |
| 50,000 | ±0.4 | ±0.4 | ±0.3 | ±0.2 |
