Consumer confidence in Australia rose last week, with the ANZ-Roy Morgan Australian Consumer Confidence index increasing by 2.0 points to reach 88.0 points. Despite this improvement, the four-week moving average of consumer confidence declined by 0.6 points to 88.2.
The subindices showed varied results over the week. The ‘time to buy a major household item’ subindex saw a significant rise of 6.9 points, rebounding from a three-month low recorded the previous week.
"ANZ-Roy Morgan Australian Consumer Confidence has partly recovered some of the prior week’s decline, lifting 2.0 points to 88.0 points last week. The index remains below the three-year high reached in early August. There was a mixed performance across the subindices last week. The ‘time to buy a major household item’ subindex recorded the largest rise at 6.9 points, a recovery from the three-month low in the week prior," said ANZ Economist Sophia Angala.
‘Current financial conditions’ improved by 1.0 point while ‘future financial conditions’ slipped slightly by 0.1 point over the same period.
Short-term economic confidence for the next year increased by 2.3 points; however, medium-term economic confidence for the next five years decreased by 0.5 points.
Weekly inflation expectations fell by 0.1 point to reach 4.9 percent, and its four-week moving average eased by an equal margin to stand at 5 percent.
"Weekly inflation expectations fell 0.1 point despite last week’s monthly inflation data showing that headline inflation spiked in July, albeit driven by more volatile items. On a 4-week moving average basis, inflation expectations have hovered around 5.0 per cent over the past month and suggest consumers’ inflation expectations remain anchored," she said.