ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence increased by 2.3 points to 66.4 this week, but is not enough to pull it out of its historic lows recently.
Consumer confidence is a large 22.4 points lower than a year ago, and is now 5.2 points below the 2026 weekly average of 71.6. This is the eighth lowest consumer confidence reading of all time, stretching back to 1972.
The weekly increase was driven by increasing confidence about the performance of people’s financial situations as well as fewer concerns about the state of the Australian economy going forward.
Now just 15 per cent (up 1ppt) of Australians say their families are ‘better off’ financially than this time last year compared to a majority of 55 per cent (down 1ppt) that say their families are ‘worse off’.
Around one in five (21 per cent) of Australians expect their family will be ‘better off’ financially this time next year, while 46 per cent (up 1ppt), expect to be ‘worse off’.
Regarding the economy over the next year, just 4 per cent (unchanged) of Australians expect ‘good times’ compared to 46 per cent (down 2ppts) that expect ‘bad times’.
In the longer term, 7 per cent (up 1ppt) of Australians expect ‘good times’ for the economy over the next five years compared to under a third (32 per cent - down 2ppts) expecting ‘bad times’.
Net buying intentions also improved this week with 13 per cent (unchanged) of respondents saying now is a ‘good time to buy’ major household items compared to 49 per cent (down 4ppts) that say now is a ‘bad time to buy major household items’.
ANZ economist, Sophia Angala, commented:
“All subindices improved last week,” ANZ economist Sophia Angala said. “This occurred alongside the release of Australia’s Budget 2026-27 and Q1 wages data.
“Weekly inflation expectations fell to 6.0 per cent last week, their lowest level since early March, though still 0.6ppt higher than at the beginning of the year.
“The still-elevated level of inflation expectations likely reflects higher fuel prices over recent months and some risk of second- round effects (where higher input costs, such as fuel or fertiliser, flow through to goods and services broadly).”
An analysis by state shows consumer confidence increased in Victoria, Queensland, and Western Australia, but was down slightly in New South Wales, and South Australia.