Consumer Confidence Plunges Below 100

The current consumer confidence level is 99.2, a whopping 13.1pts below the same time as last year. This figure is also 2pts below the 2022 weekly average of 101.2.

Two-thirds of these figures were reported before the invasion of Ukraine – from Feb 21-23, Consumer Confidence was 100.8; from Feb 24-27, this figure dropped to 97.1.

The largest falls, understandably, were in Queensland and Western Australia, which fell by 10.4pts and 5pts, respectively. This comes as more than 18,000 homes in Queensland have been flooded, and COVID cases soar in WA for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic.

“Consumer confidence dropped 2.6 percent last week amid rising COVID cases in WA, floods in Queensland and northern NSW and escalating geopolitical tensions,” said David Plank, the ANZ Head of Australian Economics. “Most of the decline took place during the latter part of the week as daily COVID cases breached 1,000 in WA, massive storms battered the east coast and the invasion of Ukraine began.”

Across Australia, confidence levels dropped 1.8 percent in Victoria but rose 0.7 percent in NSW and 3.6 percent in SA. “The fact Queensland and WA fell the most suggests local factors were key. Household inflation expectation surged to a new seven-year high at 5.3 percent as retail petrol prices continued to climb higher,” said Plank.

Buying intentions across the country have remained somewhat unchanged. Currently, 35 percent of Australians say that now is a good time to buy a major household item, increasing by one percentage point. In contrast, 34 percent say that now is a bad time to make such large purchases, which has remained unchanged since last reported.

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