ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence increased 1.7pts to 101.8pts as Omicron wave of COVID-19 continues to recede

ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence increased 1.7pts to 101.8 during the fourth week of January. Consumer Confidence is still a significant 10.3pts below the same week a year ago, January 30/31, 2021 (112.1) and is now just above the 2022 weekly average of 101.5.

On a State-based level Consumer Confidence increased in New South Wales (up 6pts) and Western Australia (up 4.5pts) – the week after WA Premier Mark McGowan announced an extension to his State’s border closure but was down slightly in Victoria (down 2.6pts) and Queensland (down 0.6pts).Driving the increase were improvements in sentiment regarding the performance of the Australian economy over the next year and next five years as well as more Australians saying now is a ‘good time to buy’ major household items.

Current financial conditions

• Now 27% (unchanged) of Australians say their families are ‘better off’ financially than this time last year compared to 28% (up 1ppt), that say their families are ‘worse off’ financially.

Future financial conditions

• An increasing plurality of Australians, 37% (up 2ppts), expect their family to be ‘better off’ financially this time next year, compared to only 18% (up 1ppt) that expect to be ‘worse off’ financially.

Current economic conditions

• However, just 15% (up 4ppts), of Australians expect ‘good times’ for the Australian economy over the next twelve months compared to 27% (down 1ppt), that expect ‘bad times’.

Future economic conditions

• In the longer term, just under a fifth of Australians, 19% (up 2ppts), are expecting ‘good times’ for the economy over the next five years compared to 18% (up 1 ppt) expecting ‘bad times’.

Time to buy a major household item

• In good news sentiment towards buying intentions has marginally improved with 36% (up 2ppts) of Australians, saying now is a ‘good time to buy’ major household items while 34% (down 1ppt) say now is a ‘bad time to buy’.

ANZ Head of Australian Economics, David Plank, commented:

"Consumer confidence increased 1.7% last week amid falling COVID cases across most of the country. The rise was mainly driven by a jump in confidence in NSW (6.2%) after three weeks of decline and a 4.3% gain in WA. It was partly offset by declines in Victoria (-2.5%) and Queensland (-0.6%). A more surprising shift was the 0.3ppt fall in inflation expectations (IE) to 4.7%. This came in the same week that the Q4 2021 CPI reported an upward surprise. Retail petrol prices are up 7.0% in January, which would usually elevate inflation expectations. We should not to read too much into a single data point, though, as inflation expectations can be quite volatile from week to week."

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.

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