Consumer confidence in Australia experienced a slight dip last week, falling by 0.2 points to 86.3 points, according to recent data. The four-week moving average also saw a minor decline of 0.1 points, settling at 87.2 points.
Weekly inflation expectations dropped by 0.2 percentage points to reach 4.7 percent, while the four-week moving average remained steady at 4.8 percent.
In terms of financial conditions, there was a notable decrease in current financial conditions over the past year, which fell by 2.7 points. Future financial conditions for the next twelve months eased by 1.8 points.
Short-term economic confidence showed an increase of 2.6 points for the upcoming year, and medium-term economic confidence rose by 2.1 points for the next five years.
The subindex measuring the 'time to buy a major household item' decreased by 0.9 points.
ANZ Economist Sophia Angala commented on these figures: "The ANZ-Roy Morgan Australian Consumer Confidence series largely moved sideways last week, falling just 0.2 points to 86.3 points. The result was driven by a mixture of outcomes across the subindices."
Angala noted that "while household confidence in financial conditions weakened, confidence in economic conditions improved despite soft labour market data last week."
She further mentioned that "confidence amongst mortgage holders is up, compared to two weeks ago, despite the RBA’s surprise decision to hold the cash rate at 3.85 per cent."
On the other hand, "confidence amongst renters declined to a 10-month low, with renters the least confident housing cohort."