Roy Morgan Research
May 24, 2022

ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence increases 1.5 points to 90.8 in the lead-up to the Federal Election

Topic: Consumer Confidence
Finding No: 8985
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ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence jumped 1.5 points to 90.8 this week, its first increase for over a month since mid-April after four straight weekly declines. Consumer Confidence is now a significant 23.4pts below the same week a year ago, May 22/23, 2021 (114.2) and is now 5.7pts below the 2022 weekly average of 96.5.


The interviews for Consumer Confidence were mostly conducted before the results of Saturday’s Federal Election were known. On a State-based basis Consumer Confidence was up in Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia, but down in New South Wales.
There were improvements this week in terms of sentiment around personal financial situations over the next year and also more Australians say now is a ‘good time to buy’ major household items.

Current financial conditions

  • Now under a quarter of Australians, 23% (down 2ppts) say their families are ‘better off’ financially than this time last year compared to 39% (up 1ppt), that say their families are ‘worse off’ financially.

Future financial conditions

  • Looking forward, just over a third of Australians, 34% (up 3ppts) expect their family to be ‘better off’ financially this time next year compared to 24% (down 3ppts), that expect to be ‘worse off’ financially.

Current economic conditions

  • An unchanged 10% of Australians expect ‘good times’ for the Australian economy over the next twelve months compared to 29% (down 1ppt), that expect ‘bad times’.

Future economic conditions

  • In the longer term, just 14% (unchanged), of Australians are expecting ‘good times’ for the economy over the next five years compared to 21% (up 1ppt) expecting ‘bad times’.

Time to buy a major household item

  • Buying intentions have recovered somewhat this week, with 28% (up 2ppts) of Australians, saying now is a ‘good time to buy’ major household items while 42% (down 2ppts) say now is a ‘bad time to buy’

ANZ Head of Australian Economics, David Plank, commented:

Block Quote

“Consumer confidence increased 1.7% last week, after a 7.7% decline over the past four weeks. The rise in the index was mainly driven by more people becoming confident about their ‘financial conditions over the next year’ along with more respondents saying it is a ‘good time to buy a major household item’. News that unemployment had fallen below 4% may have contributed to the lift in sentiment, even if the Q1 wage data disappointed. Household inflation expectations remained elevated at 5.3%, as average petrol prices rose sharply last week. Most of the survey was conducted before the federal election results were known. So the reaction to the election will be captured in next week’s index.”


Related Research Reports

The latest Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence Monthly Report is available on the Roy Morgan Online Store. It provides demographic breakdowns for Age, Sex, State, Region (Capital Cities/ Country), Generations, Lifecycle, Socio-Economic Scale, Work Status, Occupation, Home Ownership, Voting Intention, Roy Morgan Value Segments and more

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Margin of Error

The margin of error to be allowed for in any estimate depends mainly on the number of interviews on which it is based. Margin of error gives indications of the likely range within which estimates would be 95% likely to fall, expressed as the number of percentage points above or below the actual estimate. Allowance for design effects (such as stratification and weighting) should be made as appropriate.

Sample Size Percentage Estimate
40% – 60% 25% or 75% 10% or 90% 5% or 95%
1,000 ±3.0 ±2.7 ±1.9 ±1.3
5,000 ±1.4 ±1.2 ±0.8 ±0.6
7,500 ±1.1 ±1.0 ±0.7 ±0.5
10,000 ±1.0 ±0.9 ±0.6 ±0.4
20,000 ±0.7 ±0.6 ±0.4 ±0.3
50,000 ±0.4 ±0.4 ±0.3 ±0.2

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