Roy Morgan Update May 9, 2023 – Consumer Confidence, Unemployment & Business Confidence

In this week's Market Research Update, we present the latest data on Consumer Confidence, Unemployment & Business Confidence.

Hosted by Roy Morgan CEO, Michele Levine.

Roy Morgan Key Weekly Indicators - Consumer Confidence, Unemployment & Business Confidence

There were several big news items last week including:

• The coronation of King Charles III;
• The RBA increased interest rates by +0.25% (25 basis points) to 3.85%;
• The lead-up to the Federal Budget and discussion about raising JobSeeker, energy relief for low income earners and the first Budget Surplus in 15 years on the back of surging commodity prices.

The flow of news last week led to some interesting moves in the key weekly indicators – some more positive than others for the Albanese Government.

Support for the Albanese Government improved last week, up 1% to 54.5% on a two-party preferred basis compared to the Coalition on 45.5%.

This compares to last year’s Federal Election when the ALP secured 52.1% of the vote on a two-party preferred basis.

Government Confidence also surged, up by 5.5 points to 95 – still not quite up to the neutral level of 100.

Now 45% of Australians say the country is ‘Heading in the Wrong Direction’ and 40% say ‘the Right Direction’.

Although these were positive moves, the RBA’s decision to raise interest rates once more has clearly hit Consumer Confidence.

The ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence Rating dropped 2.1 points to 77.7 last week and has now been below 80 for ten straight weeks since early March – and is obviously way below the neutral level of 100.

Consumer Confidence dropped across all key housing segments this week – Home owners, renters and is clearly lowest for Australians Paying off their Home at only 73.1.

Australians now expect annual inflation of 5.3% over the next two years. This is up 0.3% in the week following the Reserve Bank’s increase to interest rates last week, to combat high levels of inflation.

Inflation Expectations have tracked around this mark for several weeks now and the measure has averaged 5.3% since late March.