Australian Consumers More Confident in Third Week of January

Roy Morgan has reported that Consumer Confidence is now 100.1, as the Omicron variant appears to have reached its peak.

However, these figures are well below in the third week of January 2021, which was 111.2 (-11.1pts).

Victoria and Western Australia led the way with the strongest rebound, increasing by 7.5pts and 8.4pts, respectively. In contrast, there was a slight decline for NSW and South Australia.

Australian Consumer Confidence is now above the neutral level of 100, but only slightly. Sentiment towards buying a major household item has increased by 1ppt to 34 percent. In good news, 35 percent of Australians say that now is a bad time to buy a major household item, which is a decrease of 4ppts.

via ANZ-Roy MorganConsumer Confidence

“The recovery came in the same week that the unemployment rate was reported as dropping to its lowest in more than 13 years,” said David Plank, the ANZ Head of Australian Economics. “COVID cases appear to have peaked, though deaths unfortunately made new highs. Confidence was driven by rises of 7.7 percent in Victoria, 8.8 percent in WA and 3.7 percent in Queensland.

“But it dropped in NSW (-2.4 percent) and SA (-2.6 percent). The live entertainment of the Australian Open tennis and great weather might have added to Victoria’s positive outlook. Ahead of the Q4 2021 CPI data, inflation expectations recorded a 0.1ppt rise to match the recent high of five percent reached in December,” he said.

New Zealand Consumer Confidence Remains Rocky in December

In New Zealand, Consumer Confidence has stayed below 100 (98.3), despite increasing 1.7pts in December.

There is a pretty even split for New Zealand consumers when it comes to buying a major household item. Similarly to Australia, there was a slight increase in the intention to buy a major household item – increasing by three ppts to 40 percent. In contrast, the same percentage of consumers (40 percent) said that now is a bad time to buy a major household item, decreasing by two percent.

Interestingly, respondents to this question in Wellignton ‘skyrocketed’ but remained restrained elsewhere. Further, unsurprisingly, respondents over the age of 50 are ‘more comfortable spending’ than others.

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