ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence is down 1.1pts to 76.2 this week and has now spent thirteen straight weeks below the mark of 80.
This is the longest stretch below 80 since the index began being conducted on a weekly basis in October 2008.
The last time consumer confidence spent at least thirteen weeks under 80 was during the 1990-91 recession when the index was conducted on a monthly basis.
Consumer confidence is now 14.5pts below the same week a year ago - May 23-29, 2022 (90.7) - and 3.8pts below the 2023 weekly average of 80.
Looking around the States, consumer confidence reversed last week’s results and was down in Victoria, Queensland, WA and SA but up in NSW.
The driver of this week’s decrease was reduced confidence about personal financial situations compared to a year ago, Roy Morgan and ANZ reported, while other indicators were largely unchanged compared to a week ago.
Now 18% of Australians (unchanged) say their families are ‘better off’ financially than this time last year compared to 53% (up 4ppts) that say their families are ‘worse off’ financially.
Looking forward, 29% (down 1ppt) expect their family to be ‘better off’ financially this time next year while over a third (35% -down 1ppt) expect to be ‘worse off’.
Only 7% (down 1ppt) of Australians expect ‘good times’ for the Australian economy over the next twelve months compared to 40% (up 1ppt) that expect ‘bad times’.
Looking further ahead, only 11% (unchanged) of Australians expect ‘good times’ for the economy over the next five years compared to 21% (unchanged) expecting ‘bad times’.
When it comes to buying intentions, 19% (up 2ppts) of Australians say now is a ‘good time to buy’ major household items while over half (54% - up 1ppt) say now is a ‘bad time to buy’.
ANZ senior economist Adelaide Timbrell said the average confidence for May 2023 (76.8) was the weakest calendar-month average since December 1990.
“The weekly result was the fifth worst since January 2020 and represented the 13th consecutive week below 80,” Timbrell said. “Confidence about current financial conditions fell the most during the week and was at its second-weakest point since the beginning of 2020 (first-weakest being earlier in May 2023).
“Those paying off their homes still have far lower average confidence than renters and outright owners, despite housing prices lifting since mid-February.”