Roy Morgan Research
September 26, 2023

ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence down 3.4pts to 76.4 – lowest since mid-August

Topic: Consumer Confidence
Finding No: 9325

ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence was down 3.4pts to 76.4 this week and has now spent a record 30 straight weeks (equivalent to seven months) below the mark of 80. Consumer Confidence is now a large 11.4pts below the same week a year ago, September 19-25, 2022 (87.8) and is now 1.7 pts below the 2023 weekly average of 78.1.

For once there was a relatively uniform picture when looking around the States with Consumer Confidence down in the four largest States of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia, but unchanged in South Australia.

Driving this week’s decrease was less confidence about personal finances over the next 12 months which was responsible for about half the weekly decline.

Current financial conditions

  • Now under a fifth of Australians, 19% (down 1ppt) say their families are ‘better off’ financially than this time last year compared to a majority of 54% (up 2ppts) that say their families are ‘worse off’ financially.

Future financial conditions

  • Looking forward, now under a third of Australians, 28% (down 5ppts), expect their family to be ‘better off’ financially this time next year while a rising 36% (up 3ppts), expect to be ‘worse off’.

Current economic conditions

  • Only 7% (down 1ppt) of Australians expect ‘good times’ for the Australian economy over the next twelve months compared to over one-third, 35% (up 1ppt), that expect ‘bad times’.

Future economic conditions

  • Net sentiment regarding the Australian economy in the longer term has deteriorated slightly this week with 10% (unchanged) of Australians expecting ‘good times’ for the economy over the next five years compared to over a fifth, 22% (up 3ppts), expecting ‘bad times’.

Time to buy a major household item

  • Sentiment regarding to buying intentions is relatively unchanged this week with 19% (unchanged) of Australians, who now say it is a ‘good time to buy’ major household items while a clear majority of 54% (up 1ppt), say now is a ‘bad time to buy’.

ANZ Economist, Madeline Dunk, commented:

Block Quote

ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence was unable to build on its recent upward momentum, with the series falling 3.4pts last week. Each of the five subindices declined, and there was a particularly steep drop in the ‘Future financial conditions’ subindex. Confidence amongst those households paying off a mortgage declined by 8.1pts, while it fell 2.9pts for renters and 0.3pts for households who own their home outright.

Meanwhile, inflation expectations rose to 5.4%, reversing the falls seen in the previous two weeks. Inflation expectations are likely to be of interest to the RBA, especially given the recent strength in petrol prices which have averaged over AUD2/litre for the last six weeks.

Check out the latest results for our weekly surveys on Business Confidence, Consumer Confidence, and Voting Intention as follows:

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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