ANZ-Roy Morgan Australian Consumer Confidence recovers to 114.6

• Households’ perceptions of current financial conditions rose by 3.1% last week, while sentiment regarding the future financial situation rose by 1.5%.
• Sentiment towards current economic conditions rose by 6.2%, more than recovering last week’s previous fall of 5.4%. Future economic conditions rose by 3.1%.
• The ‘time to buy a household item’ sub-index fell by 2.5%. Four-week moving average inflation stabilised at 4.5%.

ANZ’s Head of Australian Economics, David Plank, commented:

“There was welcome respite in the confidence index after the 6% fall the previous week. Confidence rose 2%, with four of the five sub-indices positive. The rise took the headline index back above its long-run average. Given the weakness in equity markets during the week, which saw the ASX 200 index fall more than 10% from its recent peak, the bounce in confidence was encouraging even if it was modest in the context of the prior week’s fall. The weekly read on inflation expectations more than reversed last week’s jump, suggesting that fears about rising petrol prices have subsided somewhat.

"The 'time to buy a household item' was the only confidence subindex registering negative growth, falling to its lowest level since May 2014. The weakness of this category is not surprising given the state of the housing market. There are a number of data releases this week that could impact sentiment, not least the Q3 CPI. The performance of equity markets may also drive sentiment."