Roy Morgan Research
October 10, 2023

ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence up 1.9pts to 80.1 – first time above 80 for eight months since mid-February

Topic: Consumer Confidence
Finding No: 9335

ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence was up 1.9pts to 80.1 this week, the first week the index has been above 80 since the week of February 13-19, 2023 – almost eight months ago to the day. This marks the end of a record 31 straight weeks (equivalent to just over seven months) below the mark of 80.

Consumer Confidence is now a 4.5pts below the same week a year ago, October 3-9, 2022 (84.6) and is now clearly above the 2023 weekly average of 78.2.

Looking around the States Consumer Confidence was up in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland but down slightly in Western Australia and South Australia.

Driving this week’s increase was improving levels of confidence about personal finances compared to a year ago and over the next year after new RBA Governor Michele Bullock left official interest rates unchanged for the fourth straight month.

Current financial conditions

  • Now over a fifth of Australians, 21% (up 1ppt) say their families are ‘better off’ financially than this time last year compared to a plurality of 49% (down 2ppts) that say their families are ‘worse off’ financially.

Future financial conditions

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

Current economic conditions

  • Only 8% (unchanged) of Australians expect ‘good times’ for the Australian economy over the next twelve months compared to over one-third, 36% (down 1ppt), that expect ‘bad times’.

Future economic conditions

  • Net sentiment regarding the Australian economy in the longer term has improved slightly this week with 13% (up 2ppts) of Australians expecting ‘good times’ for the economy over the next five years compared to a fifth, 20% (unchanged), expecting ‘bad times’.

Time to buy a major household item

  • Sentiment regarding to buying intentions is relatively unchanged this week with 20% (unchanged) of Australians, who now say it is a ‘good time to buy’ major household items while a reduced majority of 52% (down 2ppts), say now is a ‘bad time to buy’.

ANZ Senior Economist, Adelaide Timbrell, commented:

Block Quote

The ANZ-Roy Morgan Australian Consumer Confidence index is trending up and reached its highest level since the last week of February, though is still in weak territory. Confidence about personal finances have been key to the recent upward trend. One less encouraging reason “current finances” confidence is likely trending up may be because the question asks participants to compare their current finances to a year ago, and inflation and interest rates were already a central issue for households in late 2022. It may also reflect wage and employment growth over the last year, which have offset some effects of inflation and higher rates for many households.

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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