Roy Morgan Update May 20, 2025: Consumer Confidence, Inflation Expectations and Australian Readership

In this week's Market Research Update, we present the latest data on Consumer Confidence, Inflation Expectations and Australian Readership.

Welcome to the Roy Morgan weekly update.

And all eyes this week were on the Reserve Bank which met today and decided to cut interest rates by 0.25% to 3.85% - it’s second interest rate cut this year.

The Reserve Bank’s decision to cut interest rates will be welcomed by many Australians – including the re-elected Albanese Government – and clearly have a significant impact on Roy Morgan’s key weekly indicators next week.

Although the Federal Election was held more than two weeks ago, final votes were only received last Friday and counting continues.

The seat of Bradfield was awarded to Independent Nicolette Boele yesterday in a tight victory over the Liberal candidate Gisele Kapterian – although the final margin of under 40 votes is set to trigger an automatic recount, and other seats like Calwell are still undecided.

Final Senate results won’t be known for a number of weeks.

Nevertheless, these results don’t take away from a comprehensive ALP victory – likely the largest since World War 2.

In further good news for the re-elected Labor Government, ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence, has increased for a third straight week, up 0.5 points to 88.8 – likely in anticipation of a positive result from today’s Reserve Bank meeting.

Consumer Confidence before today’s Reserve Bank decision was at its highest since late February – just after the Reserve Bank last cut interest rates.

One of the key drivers of this week’s increase was more positive sentiment about the performance of the Australian economy over the next 12 months which increase by a net 3% points.

ANZ-Roy Morgan Inflation Expectations were unchanged at 4.5% this week before the Reserve Bank meeting.

Australians now expect inflation of 4.5% over each of the next two years – the lowest Inflation Expectations have been since the Reserve Bank cut interest rates in late February.

Inflation Expectations have dropped sharply after spiking to a high of 5.1% in April after US President Donald Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ announcement of worldwide tariffs.

Since then, Trump has proceeded to suspend the introduction of many of these tariffs and start cutting deals with key trading partners to lower tariffs.

Looking longer-term, Inflation Expectations have been on a steady downward track over the last few years since hitting a high of 6.8% in late 2022.

The downward pressure on Inflation is clearly highlighted by the sustained fall in petrol prices.

Average retail petrol prices in Australia were down to “only” $1.70 per litre last week – the lowest since September 2022 nearly three years ago.

Prior to early 2022, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine which ‘spiked’ energy prices world-wide, petrol prices had rarely been above this level.

The reduction in petrol prices is a key factor in the reduction in inflation pressures over the last year with average retail petrol prices dropping from over $2 per litre a year ago and falling consistently since a recent high of $1.89 per litre around Christmas time last year.

Despite the fall, this week marked 139 weeks when petrol prices have been at least $1.70 per litre.

Finally, the latest Roy Morgan readership figures for the 12 months to March 2025 released yesterday show NEWS matters – especially in a crucial time such as the intense Federal Election campaign of the last few months.

Now 98% of Australians – an estimated 22.4 million – consume news in any given month either in papers or digitally via online outlets or apps.

The most widely read category of news remains the ‘General News’ category with a unique audience (or read by) 22 million Australians – equivalent to 96% of the population.

Property continues to be highly popular with over two-thirds of Australians, 70%, turning to the Property section – the second most popular overall.

In third place is Sport, read by 13.8 million Australians – 61% of the population, followed by Entertainment & Culture on 12.7 million, Lifestyle & Health on 12.2 million, and Business and Finance read by 10.6 million.

The latest Roy Morgan figures on Magazine readership released today show over 14.9 million Australians read magazines in print or online.

The two most widely read magazines are Coles Magazine, with a readership of over 5 million Australians and Fresh Ideas (from Woolworths) with a readership of almost 5 million.

The most widely read paid magazines are Better Homes & Gardens with a readership of over 1.7 million, The Australian Women’s Weekly with a readership of almost 1.2 million and National Geographic with a readership of over 1 million.

For detailed information on the latest Roy Morgan readership figures, for magazines and newspapers, and the ThinkNewsBrands analysis visit the Roy Morgan website.