Consumer Confidence on rise 7 December

Consumer confidence increased by 1.4 per cent last week. Among the major states, confidence rose in New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia, while it dropped in Victoria and South Australia.

‘Weekly inflation expectations’ increased 0.1ppt to 4.9 per cent, while its fourweek moving average was unchanged at 4.8 per cent.

Four of the five confidence subindices registered gains. ‘Current financial conditions’ increased by 2.1 per cent and ‘future financial conditions’ rose 1.9 per cent.

‘Current economic conditions’ rose 1.0 per cent and ‘future economic conditions’ jumped 3.8 per cent.

‘Time to buy a major household item’ bucked the trend, dropping 1.5 per cent.

“Consumer confidence rose 1.4 per cent last week even as ‘weekly inflation expectations’ rose a touch to 4.9 per cent.” ANZ Head of Australian Economics, David Plank said.

“Consumers are positive about the outlook despite the news about the Omicron variant.”

“Among the major cities confidence increased by 5.0 per cent in Sydney, 1.0 per cent in Brisbane and 1.4 per cent in Perth, while it dropped in Melbourne (-1.2 per cent) and Adelaide (-0.5 per cent).”

“The sustained jump in inflation expectations doesn’t seem to have had a major impact on sentiment, unlike what is occurring elsewhere such as in the US.”

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