ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence has dropped 3.7 points to 76.4 this week after ending a near-eight month continuous stretch below 80 last week, where it hit 80.1.
Consumer confidence is now 5.8 points below the same week a year ago and is now below the 2023 weekly average of 78.1.
The decrease was driven by declines across all subindices, with the biggest falls related to views about personal finances compared to a year ago and looking forward in 2024.
“The weakness in confidence was broad-based,” ANZ senior economist Adelaide Timbrell said.
“Among the housing cohorts, confidence plunged for those paying off their homes (-7.2pts), reversing the gains of the previous two weeks. It fell for outright homeowners as well (-3pts), while it rose slightly for those renting (+1pt).
“Inflation expectations rose despite heavier than usual retail sales activity in October as well as a two-year low in price pressure measures in the NAB Business Survey.”
Consumer confidence was down in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia but up slightly in Western Australia.
Now under a fifth of Australians (19%) say their families are ‘better off’ financially than this time last year - a drop of 2 percentage points. This is compared to a majority of 53% (up 4ppts) that say their families are ‘worse off’.
Looking forward, 28% (down 2 ppts) expect their family to be ‘better off’ financially this time next year while 36% (up 2 ppts) expect to be ‘worse off’.
Only 6% (down 2 ppts) of Australians expect ‘good times’ for the Australian economy over the next twelve months compared to 37% (up 1ppt) that expect ‘bad times’.
Over the next five years, 10% of Australian expect ‘good times’ for the economy - down 3 ppts - while 21% (up 1ppt) expect ‘bad times’.
Regarding buying intentions, 18% (down 2ppts) of Australians say now it is a ‘good time to buy’ major household items while an unchanged 52% say now is a ‘bad time to buy’.