Roy Morgan Research
February 28, 2023

ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence virtually unchanged at 80.0 in late February

Topic: Consumer Confidence
Finding No: 9175
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ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence was virtually unchanged at 80.0 this week. However, Consumer Confidence is still a large 19.2pts below the same week a year ago, February 21-27, 2022 (99.2). Consumer Confidence is now 3.7pts below the 2023 weekly average of 83.7.

Consumer Confidence was down in Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia, but up slightly in New South Wales. Consumer Confidence is now below 80 in Victoria and Queensland.

Views on personal finances and the buying climate were virtually unchanged this week although there was a slight deterioration in how consumers view the long-term performance of the economy.

Current financial conditions

  • Now 22% of Australians (unchanged) say their families are ‘better off’ financially than this time last year compared to 48% (up 1ppt) that say their families are ‘worse off’ financially.

Future financial conditions

  • Looking forward, under a third of Australians, 32% (up 2ppts), expect their family to be ‘better off’ financially this time next year while just over a third, 35% (up 1ppt), expect to be ‘worse off’.

Current economic conditions

  • Only 7% (up 1ppt) of Australians expect ‘good times’ for the Australian economy over the next twelve months compared to almost two-fifths, 38% (up 1ppt), that expect ‘bad times’.

Future economic conditions

  • Sentiment regarding the Australian economy in the longer term is very weak with only 11% (down 1ppt) of Australians expecting ‘good times’ for the economy over the next five years compared to 20% (up 1ppt) expecting ‘bad times’.

Time to buy a major household item

  • When it comes to buying intentions now 21% (up 1ppt) of Australians, say now is a ‘good time to buy’ major household items while over half, 52% (up 1ppt), say now is a ‘bad time to buy’.

ANZ Senior Economist, Adelaide Timbrell, commented:

Block Quote

Consumer confidence remained virtually unchanged last week with a slight fall from the week before. This is the third consecutive week with confidence among the worst ten results since the COVID outbreak in Australia. Among those paying off their mortgage confidence dropped sharply (-4.4pts), to its lowest level since early April 2020 and to 11pts below the average for all housing cohorts. Confidence about current and future economic conditions are at their lowest level since November 2022, while current financial conditions was at its worst level since December 2022. Future financial conditions rose 0.9pts in the week.

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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