Consumer confidence in Australia has seen a slight rise, according to recent data. The index climbed 1.4 points last week, reaching 88.6 points, with the four-week moving average also increasing by 0.5 of a point to 87 points.
Weekly inflation expectations experienced an increase of 0.3 percentage points, reaching 5 percent, while the four-week moving average rose by 0.1 percentage points to 4.8 percent.
The report highlighted that current financial conditions over the past year saw a significant rise of 6.3 points, and future financial conditions for the next 12 months increased by 0.7 points.
Short-term economic confidence for the upcoming year went up by 2.5 points, while medium-term economic confidence over the next five years improved by three points.
However, there was a decline in the subindex measuring the time to buy major household items, which dropped six points.
ANZ Economist Sophia Angala commented on these findings: "ANZ-Roy Morgan Australian Consumer Confidence rose 1.4 points last week to 88.6 points. The ‘Time to buy a major household item’ was the only subindex to see a decline last week, as end-of-financial-year sales concluded at the beginning of the survey period."
Angala further noted that "confidence in both the financial and economic outlook strengthened," possibly due to anticipation of a rate cut by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) during its July meeting. She added, "We expect 25bp rate cuts by the RBA each in July and August, given a soft consumer sector as suggested by recent momentum in retail sales and lingering US trade policy uncertainty."