Roy Morgan Research
May 02, 2023

ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence up 1.8pts to 79.8 and has now spent a record nine straight weeks below 80

Topic: Consumer Confidence
Finding No: 9220

ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence was up 1.8pts to 79.8 this week and has now spent nine straight weeks below the mark of 80 – the longest stretch below 80 since the index began being conducted on a weekly basis in October 2008. The last time Consumer Confidence spent at least nine weeks under 80 was during the 1990-91 recession when the index was conducted on a monthly basis.

Consumer Confidence is now 10.9pts below the same week a year ago, April 25 – May 1, 2022 (90.7) and 0.9pts below the 2023 weekly average of 80.7. As usual Consumer Confidence was mixed around the States with increases in Queensland and WA, but down in NSW, Victoria and South Australia.

The driver of this week’s increase was more confidence regarding personal financial situations and less concern about the Australian economy over the next year and next five years.

Current financial conditions

  • Now 20% of Australians (up 1ppt) say their families are ‘better off’ financially than this time last year compared to 50% (unchanged) that say their families are ‘worse off’ financially.

Future financial conditions

  • Looking forward, under a third of Australians, 31% (up 1ppt), expect their family to be ‘better off’ financially this time next year while 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 over a third, 35% (down 3ppts), that expect ‘bad times’.

Future economic conditions

  • Sentiment regarding the Australian economy in the longer term remains very weak with only 11% (unchanged) of Australians expecting ‘good times’ for the economy over the next five years compared to 19% (down 4ppts) expecting ‘bad times’.

Time to buy a major household item

  • When it comes to buying intentions now 20% (unchanged) of Australians, say now is a ‘good time to buy’ major household items while over half, 52% (up 1ppt), say now is a ‘bad time to buy’.

ANZ Senior Economist, Adelaide Timbrell, commented:

Block Quote

“While still in deeply negative territory, consumer confidence increased 1.8pts, the biggest weekly increase since mid-February. This was driven by outright homeowners, whose confidence jumped 3.7pts on average, compared with more modest increases among renters (+0.5pts) and those paying off their homes (+0.6pts). This may be due to an uptick in housing prices in March and April. Confidence about both finances and the economy rose during the week, with the strongest gain in confidence about ‘future economic conditions.’ Inflation expectations moderated to 5.0%, its lowest result since the first week of 2023.”

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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