Australia’s weekly consumer sentiment index rose. The ANZ-Roy Morgan consumer confidence index rose 0.7 percent, continuing its up-down-up pattern. Financial conditions came in mixed, with current financial conditions gaining 2.2 percent and future financial conditions falling 0.9 percent.
The economic conditions subindices came in positive. Current economic conditions were up 1.7 percent while future economic conditions rose 5.9 percent. This jump took future economic conditions back to where they were in mid-December. The ‘time to buy a household item’ index dropped 3.9 percent, to its lowest level since October. Four-week moving average inflation expectations came in stable at 4.2 percent.
“We think the bounce over the past week was likely due to encouraging employment numbers on the domestic front and the end of the US government shutdown. Importantly, consumer sentiment remains well above the long-run average and provides some offset to the recent downbeat news on business conditions. Critical to continued good cheer for households will be the performance of the labour market”, said ANZ’s Head of Australian Economics, David Plank.
At 12:00 GMT the FxWirePro's Hourly Strength Index of Australian Dollar was slightly bullish at 71.3317, while the FxWirePro's Hourly Strength Index of US Dollar was neutral at -34.5228 more details on FxWirePro's Currency Strength Index, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex
