Australia ANZ-Roy Morgan weekly consumer confidence falls sharply on pessimism over future financial, economic conditions

Australia’s ANZ-Roy Morgan weekly consumer confidence fell a sharp 3.5 percent last week, its third straight weekly fall. Confidence declined across all sub-indices, with particularly sharp falls in views towards future financial and economic conditions. Households’ views towards current financial conditions fell 1.3 percent last week, following a 1.0 percent fall in the week prior.

Sentiment towards future financial conditions plummeted (-7.6 percent) to its lowest level in a year. Consumers’ continued to be less optimistic about current economic conditions – their assessment declined another 0.8% last week, the third consecutive weekly fall.

Views towards future economic conditions tumbled 5.3 percent last week, following a modest declined (-0.3 percent) in the previous week. The ‘time to buy a household item’ sub-index slipped another 1.5 percent to 129.3 (vs 134.0 long term average). Four-week moving average inflation expectations were unchanged at 4.3 percent.

"It is, however, important to note that households’ views towards economic conditions have been trending down since late June. In four week moving average terms, sentiment around future conditions has fallen below its long term average (112.5 vs 113.9). Still, views towards current conditions remain above their long term average for the moment and, as a result, so do aggregate economic conditions," said David Plank, Head of Australian Economics, ANZ Research.