Consumer confidence has reached its highest spot for 2025 in welcome news for local retailers, according to new data from ANZ bank and Roy Morgan.
The pair’s consumer confidence index lifted by 5.9 points to 98.8 in June, which follows a fall in May and is also the largest monthly increase in the index so far this year.
The proportion of households thinking it’s a good time to buy a major household item – which Roy Morgan and ANZ call the best retail indicator – lifted 3 points, but at negative 7, it’s very soft.
Inflation expectations lifted 0.3 points to 4.9 per cent, the highest since April 2023. The pair say this has probably got quite a lot to do with food price inflation, which is running at 4.4 per cent.
The future conditions index, made up of forward-looking questions, rose 8 points to 104.8, recovering last month’s fall. The current conditions index rose 3 points to 89.8.
Net perceptions of current personal financial situations rose 3 points but are still in the red at negative 13 per cent. Over a quarter of New Zealanders (26 per cent - up 2ppts) say they are 'better off financially' than this time last year compared to 39 per cent (down 1ppt) now saying they are 'worse off financially'.
A net 20 per cent of New Zealanders expect to be better off this time next year, up 8 points on a month ago, with 43 per cent (up 6ppts) expecting to be 'better off financially' this time next year compared to 23 per cent (down 2ppts) expecting to be 'worse off financially'.
Meanwhile, 7 per cent of New Zealanders think it’s a bad time to buy a major household item, an improvement of 3 points on a month ago, but still weak, with 41 per cent (down 2ppts) saying now is a 'bad time to buy' major household items compared to only 34 per cent (unchanged) who say now is a 'good time to buy' major household items.
Net perceptions regarding the economic outlook over the next 12 months rose 7 points to negative 13 per cent. The 5-year-ahead measure recovered much of last month’s fall, up 8 points to positive 7.
House price inflation expectations were steady at 3.6 per cent year-on-year. Two-year-ahead CPI inflation expectations lifted from 4.6 per cent to 4.9 per cent.