Consumer Confidence ‘Barely Moved’ Amid Multiple Lockdowns

According to Roy Morgan, consumer confidence in Sydney dropped by 4.6 percent as the city enters a two-week lockdown.

This drop was offset by Melbourne, with confidence increasing by 2.4 percent as restrictions are lifted following a two-week lockdown. “Headline consumer confidence barely moved last week, dropping only 0.2 percent from the week before,” said Felicity Emmett, the Senior Economist ANZ at Roy Morgan.

“With new COVID-19 cases rising quite rapidly in NSW over the week, confidence in Sydney fell 4.6 percent, while in regional NSW it fell 6.6 percent. The impact of this was largely offset by ongoing recovery in confidence in Melbourne and further gains in confidence elsewhere. Recent experience suggests sentiment will respond to case numbers and lockdown measures in the coming weeks: if case numbers remain high, confidence is likely to deteriorate, but if they come back under control quickly and restrictions look likely to be short-lived sentiment is likely to rebound.”

via Roy Morgan

Consumer confidence is now slightly above the weekly 2021 average of 111.4 and is 19.2 pts higher than the same week in 2020. Forty-five percent of Australians say that now is a good time to buy a major household item, up three ppts. In contrast, 24 percent say that now is a bad time – this figure remains unchanged.

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