ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence increased 2 points to 88.0 this week, amid fresh volatility in headline inflation.
Consumer confidence is now 4.9 points above the same week a year ago, and 1.2 points above the 2025 weekly average of 86.8.
The main driver of this week’s increase was an improvement in buying sentiment which improved by a net 7 percentage points from a week ago – powering around three-quarters of the weekly increase.
Just over a fifth of Australians (23 per cent – up 2ppts) say their families are ‘better off’ financially than this time last year compared to 43 per cent (unchanged) that say their families are ‘worse off’.
Net views on personal finances over the next year were virtually unchanged with 26 per cent (down 2ppts) of respondents expecting their family will be ‘better off’ financially this time next year, while 31 per cent (down 2ppts) expect to be ‘worse off’.
Sentiment regarding the economy over the next year improved this week with 14 per cent (up 2ppts) of Australians expecting ‘good times’ for the Australian economy over the next twelve months, which is the highest figure for this indicator for well over three years since February 2022. More than a quarter (29 per cent – unchanged) expect ‘bad times’.
In the longer-term, 13 per cent (unchanged) of Australians expect ‘good times’ for the economy over the next five years compared to 27 per cent (up 1ppt) expecting ‘bad times’.
As for buying intentions, 26 per cent (up 4ppts) of Australians think now is a ‘good time to buy’ major household items compared to 32 per cent (down 3ppts) that say now is a ‘bad time to buy major household items’.
ANZ economist Sophia Angala said, despite the bump up, the index remains below the three-year high reached in early August.
“There was a mixed performance across the subindices last week,” Angala said. “The ‘time to buy a major household item’ subindex recorded the largest rise at 6.9pts, a recovery from the three-month low in the week prior.”
Angala added that Roy Morgan’s weekly inflation expectations fell 0.1 points despite last week’s monthly inflation data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showing that headline inflation spiked in July 2025, 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.”
According to the ABS, the recent monthly spike followed several months of easing inflation.
The largest contributors to this rise were housing (up 3.6 per cent), food and non-alcoholic beverages (up 3.0 per cent), and alcohol and tobacco (up 6.5 per cent).
When prices for some items change significantly, measures of underlying inflation such as the annual trimmed mean, can give more insights into how inflation is trending.
ABS head of prices statistics Michelle Marquardt confirmed annual trimmed mean inflation was 2.7 per cent to July 2025. “This was up from 2.1 per cent inflation to June and similar to the rate that we saw three months ago,” she said.
The CPI measure, excluding volatile items and holiday travel, rose 3.2 per cent in the 12 months to July, compared to a 2.5 per cent rise in the 12 months to June.
Annual housing inflation was 3.6 per cent to July, up from 1.6 per cent to June, reflecting increases in electricity costs.
Electricity costs rose 13.1 per cent in the 12 months to July, compared to a 6.3 per cent fall in the 12 months to June.
In monthly terms, electricity costs rose 13.0 per cent in July. The ABS noted there were two main contributors to the monthly increase.
The largest contributor was that households in NSW and ACT did not receive payments of the extended Commonwealth Energy Bill Relief Fund (EBRF) in July. Payment of rebates for households in NSW and ACT will instead commence in August. This means that those households had higher out-of-pocket costs for electricity in July. In addition to this, prices rose due to annual electricity price reviews coming into effect.
Annual inflation for clothing and footwear was up 2.3 per cent, driven by garments for men and women, and a 5.9 per cent lift in accessories prices. This was offset by single-digit inflation percentage falls in footwear for men (down 2.9 per cent) and women (down 2.9 per cent) and kids (down 1.7 per cent).