Consumer confidence experienced a decline last week, dropping 2.9 points to reach 85.5 points. The four-week moving average also showed a decrease, falling by 0.3 points to stand at 86.6 points.
Weekly inflation expectations decreased by 0.3 percentage points, reaching 4.5 percent, with the four-week moving average showing a slight decline of 0.1 percentage point to settle at 4.8 percent.
In terms of financial conditions, current conditions over the past year fell by 3.9 points while future financial conditions for the next 12 months saw a more significant drop of 5.4 points.
Short-term economic confidence, projected over the next year, decreased by 2.0 points and medium-term economic confidence, forecasted for the next five years, eased by 2.3 points.
The subindex tracking the "time to buy a major household item" recorded a fall of 2.7 points.
ANZ Economist Madeline Dunk commented on these changes: "Consumer Confidence declined 2.9 points last week, following the release of the softer-than-expected Q3 GDP data and the end of Black Friday related sales."
Dunk highlighted that "the biggest falls were in households’ confidence in their financial conditions, especially over the next 12 months." She added that "the ‘time to buy a major household item’ subindex declined 2.7 points following the conclusion of Black Friday sales events."
Despite this decline, Dunk noted that "the subindex is still at its second strongest level since May 2022." Furthermore, she mentioned that "after picking up a few weeks ago, inflation expectations have eased 0.5 percentage point over the past fortnight to 4.5 percent," adding that these expectations have not been below this level since August 2021.