ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence was up 2pts to 76.7 this week.
Despite the increase, the index has now spent a record 43 straight weeks below the mark of 85.
Consumer confidence is now 6.9pts below the same week a year ago, and below the 2023 weekly average of 77.9.
Looking around the states, it was up significantly in New South Wales and Queensland, but down in Victoria and South Australia.
ANZ senior economist Adelaide Timbrell said the index lifted slightly last week driven by a jump in the ‘time to buy a major household item’ subindex.
“The subindex climbed to its highest since the first week of February as buying sentiment remained upbeat over the week running into the Black Friday sales weekend,” Timbrell said. “Confidence rebounded 3pts for those paying off their homes but remained significantly lower than the other housing cohorts.
“There was a small uptick in sentiment among outright homeowners and renters as well.”
Now a fifth of Australians (20% - up 1ppt) say their families are ‘better off’ financially than this time last year compared to an unchanged 55% that say their families are ‘worse off’.
Looking forward, 27% of Australians (down 1ppt) expect their family to be ‘better off’ financially this time next year. This is the lowest figure for this indicator for well over three years since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2020.
Meanwhile, 40% (up 2ppts) expect to be ‘worse off’ this time next year, the lowest net rating for this question for 34 years since August 1989.
Only 8% (up 2ppts) of Australians expect ‘good times’ for the Australian economy over the next twelve months compared to 40% (down 2ppts) that expect ‘bad times’.
Net sentiment regarding the Australian economy in the longer term has improved this week with 12% (up 2ppts) of Australians expecting ‘good times’ for the economy over the next five years compared to 22% (unchanged) expecting ‘bad times’.
Buying intentions improved for a second straight week this week with 23% (up 4ppts) of Australians saying now is a ‘good time to buy’ major household items. This is the highest figure for this indicator for ten months since January 2023, and comes as Australians shopped the Black Friday / Cyber Monday sales over the last week.
However, 49% (down 3ppts) say now is a ‘bad time to buy’ - the lowest figure for this indicator for ten months since January 2023.