ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence was down 0.8pts to 73.3 this week.
The index has spent nearly 20 weeks below the mark of 80, which is the longest stretch since it began being conducted on a weekly basis in October 2008.
The last time consumer confidence spent at least nineteen weeks under 80 was during the 1990-91 recession.
Consumer confidence is now 8.3pts below the same week a year ago - July 4-10, 2022 (81.6) - and 5.3pts below the 2023 weekly average of 78.6.
Driving the index down this week were negative moves for whether now is a good or bad time to buy major household items after the End of Financial Year/Mid-Year sales ended, ANZ and Roy Morgan report.
Despite this, there were small improvements in sentiment around personal finances following the RBA leaving rates unchanged.
A 53% majority of Australians (down 3ppts) say their families are ‘worse off’ financially compared to an unchanged 19% who say they are ‘better off’.
Looking forward, just over a quarter of Australians - 27% (down 1ppt) - expect their family to be ‘better off’ financially this time next year while almost two-fifths - 39% (down 1ppt) - expect to be ‘worse off’.
Only 6% (unchanged) of Australians expect ‘good times’ for the Australian economy over the next twelve months compared to 43% (unchanged) that expect ‘bad times’.
Sentiment regarding the Australian economy in the longer term remains very weak, ANZ and Roy Morgan report, with only 10% (unchanged) of Australians expecting ‘good times’ for the economy over the next five years compared to 22% (down 1ppt) expecting ‘bad times’.
Meanwhile, 56% (up 4ppts) say now is a ‘bad time to buy’ major household items, with 17% (down 4ppts) say now is a ‘good time to buy’
“ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence fell last week despite the RBA leaving the cash rate unchanged, though many subcategories of confidence lifted,” ANZ senior economist Adelaide Timbrell said.
“There were small gains in ‘current’ and ‘future financial conditions’ and ‘future economic conditions’ but that was more than offset by a sharp decline in the ‘time to buy a major household item’ subindex.
“Confidence dropped 3.4pts for those paying off their own homes and fell to its lowest level on record for this cohort.”