Australia’s consumer confidence declines

Australia’s ANZ Roy-Morgan consumer confidence eased slightly for the week ending June 12, owing to drop in consumer sentiments towards buying a household item. However, this partially reverses the strong improvements in this sub-index over the previous few weeks.

After jumping to a multi-year high the previous week, consumer confidence was little changed in the week ending June 12, edging down 0.3 percent to 116.4. The confidence index is now hovering around four percent above its long-run average, and the 4-week moving average is on a clear upward trend, ANZ reported.

Consumer sentiments towards buying a household item remained soft by 2.3 percent compared to the last week. However, views on current finances remain upbeat with the sub-index showing up a solid growth of 1.7 percent last week. This was only partially offset by weakness in the sub-index on 'finances in the next 12 months', which fell 0.3 percent following solid rises over the previous two weeks.

"It’s particularly encouraging that consumers remain upbeat about their current financial situation given that this index is a reasonable indicator of household consumption. It suggests household spending will likely continue to post solid growth in Q2," said Felicity Emmett, Head, Australian Economics, ANZ.

Meanwhile, consumers also remained optimistic on their views on the economic outlook of the economy. Views on 'economic conditions over the next 12 months' rose 0.3 percent and views towards 'the economy in the next 5 years' edged down 0.1 percent.