ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence increased 1.8 points to 82 this week, driven by a 3.9 point rise in confidence among renters.
Despite the increase, the index has now spent a record 68 straight weeks below the mark of 85.
Consumer Confidence is now 4.7 points above the same week a year ago and just 0.4 points below the 2024 weekly average of 82.4.
The 3.9 point rise in confidence amongst renters was likely driven by new measures announced in the Budget, particularly the 10 per cent rise in Commonwealth Rent Assistance according to ANZ economist Madeline Dunk.
“Across the other housing cohorts, there was a small lift in confidence amongst households paying off their homes, while confidence declined for those who own their homes outright,” Dunk said.
“The ‘future financial conditions’ subindex rose above its neutral level of 100 for the first time in seven weeks.
“Meanwhile, inflation expectations remained stable at their 2024 low of 4.8%.”
The current financial outlook amongst Australians remained unchanged this week, with 20 per cent of Australians saying their families are ‘better off’ financially than this time last year compared to 50 per cent that say their families are ‘worse off’.
Views on personal finances over the next year were little changed this week, with 33 per cent (up 1ppt) expecting their family to be ‘better off’ financially this time next year while another 33 per cent (unchanged) are expecting to be ‘worse off’.
Just over one-in-ten Australians (11 per cent - up 2ppts) expect ‘good times’ for the Australian economy over the next twelve months compared to 33 per cent (unchanged) that expect ‘bad times’.
Net sentiment regarding the Australian economy in the longer term also improved slightly this week, with 12 per cent (up 1ppt) of Australians expecting ‘good times’ for the economy over the next five years compared to 22 per cent (unchanged) expecting ‘bad times’.
Meanwhile, an improvement in net buying intentions drove this week’s increase in consumer confidence with 22 per cent (up 3ppts) of Australians saying now is a ‘good time to buy’ major household items while 50 per cent (down 2ppts) say now is a ‘bad time to buy’ – a net improvement of 5 percentage points.
Looking around the states, there were mixed results, with consumer confidence up in New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia but down slightly in Victoria.