Australian ANZ-Roy Morgan weekly consumer confidence continues to recover on optimism over current financial conditions

Australia’s ANZ-Roy Morgan consumer confidence continues recovering from the dive seen the weekend of the Wentworth by-election. This week’s 1.9 percent rise means confidence has regained almost two thirds of the drop.

Performance across the sub-indices was mixed. While households’ perceptions of current financial conditions rose by 1.7 percent, sentiment regarding the future financial situation fell by 0.4 percent. Both the sub-indices of economic conditions fell. Current and future economic conditions fell by 1.9 percent and 0.4 percent respectively.

The 'time to buy a household item' sub-index jumped sharply, gaining 9.7 percent. Despite this sharp gain, this sub-index is no higher than it was a few weeks back. Four-week moving average inflation stabilised at 4.5 percent. There has been considerable volatility in weekly inflation expectations of late.

"The recovery since then, back to a level well above the long-run average, suggests that the plunge was largely due to the by-election. Since then the economic backdrop, which has seen the unemployment rate drop to 5 percent, seems to be supportive enough to offset negative influences such as the weakness in housing," said David Plank, ANZ’s Head of Australian Economics.