The see-saw continues.
The ANZ-Roy Morgan Australian Consumer Confidence fell slightly this week with two out of the five sub-indices showing declines while one was steady.
Consumers’ views towards current financial conditions strengthened by 2.8%, while that towards future conditions worsened by 6.5% after three straight weekly gains. In both cases this reversed the direction of last week’s move.
Expectations regarding economic conditions improved, with views towards current conditions registering solid gains up 5.0% to reach a four month high. The future economic conditions index remained unchanged with both the indices sitting comfortably above their long term average.
The ‘time to buy a household item’ sub-index fell 2.3% while the four week moving average inflation expectations fell slightly to 4.5%.
“Consumer confidence has consolidated over the past two weeks, after jumping sharply in early June, leaving the four week moving average at four month highs,” ANZ head of Australian Economics, David Plank (pictured) said.
However he added it was disappointing that the passage of the income tax cuts through Parliament last week failed to boost expectations about future finances, likely reflecting the softer housing market and ongoing global tensions.
“Stepping back from weekly volatility, consumer confidence has been on an upward trajectory for some months. This is encouraging in the face of falling house prices and provides some comfort given that we see household spending as the key domestic risk to the economic outlook,” Plank said.