Roy Morgan Research
February 21, 2023

ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence recovers slightly, up 2.3pts to 80.4

Topic: Consumer Confidence
Finding No: 9170

ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence recovered slightly this week, up 2.3pts to 80.4. However, Consumer Confidence is still a large 21.4pts below the same week a year ago, February 14-20, 2022 (101.8). Consumer Confidence is now 3.9pts below the 2023 weekly average of 84.3.

Driving this week’s recovery in Consumer Confidence was sentiment related to personal finances compared to a year ago and whether now is a ‘good/bad time to buy’ major household items.

Consumer Confidence was up in all five mainland States this week and above 80 in Victoria, Western Australia and South Australia but under 80 in New South Wales and Queensland.

Current financial conditions

  • Now 22% of Australians (up 3ppts) say their families are ‘better off’ financially than this time last year compared to 47% (down 2ppts) that say their families are ‘worse off’ financially.

Future financial conditions

  • Looking forward, under a third of Australians, 30% (down 1ppt), expect their family to be ‘better off’ financially this time next year while just over a third, 34% (down 1ppt), expect to be ‘worse off’.

Current economic conditions

  • Only 6% (down 1ppt) of Australians expect ‘good times’ for the Australian economy over the next twelve months compared to almost two-fifths, 37% (down 4ppts), that expect ‘bad times’.

Future economic conditions

  • Sentiment regarding the Australian economy in the longer term is very weak with only 12% (down 1ppt) of Australians expecting ‘good times’ for the economy over the next five years compared to 19% (up 1ppt) expecting ‘bad times’.

Time to buy a major household item

  • When it comes to buying intentions now 20% (up 3ppts) of Australians, say now is a ‘good time to buy’ major household items while over half, 51% (down 3ppts), say now is a ‘bad time to buy’.

ANZ Senior Economist, Adelaide Timbrell, commented:

Block Quote

Consumer confidence increased last week but remained lower than before the February RBA cash rate hike. At 80.4, the Consumer Confidence Index was among the worst ten results in the 150 weeks since the initial COVID outbreak in Australia. The confidence among those paying off their mortgage is still lower than the other groups, at 73.8. Average confidence rose for all the three housing groups during the week, with gains of 1.4pts for people who own their home outright, 3.1pts for those paying off their mortgage, and 2.6pts for renters. Household inflation expectations softened to 5.1%, potentially a lagged response to the rise in interest rates.

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

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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
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