Australian ANZ-Roy Morgan consumer confidence declines after two straight weekly gains

Australian ANZ-Roy Morgan consumer confidence declined 0.3 percent last week, after two straight weekly gains.

‘Overall financial conditions’ was flat, as a decline of 0.5 percent in ‘current finances’ was balanced by a similar increase in future finances.

‘Current economic conditions’ fell 1.8 percent, while ‘future economic conditions’ gained 3.5 percent last week.

‘Time to buy a major household item’ was down 2.4 percent compared to a gain of 4.7 percent previously. The four-week moving average of ‘inflation expectations’ was stable at 3.9 percent.

"Confidence declined modestly last week, despite the strong employment number. The news flow around the coronavirus and the potential implications for Chinese and Australian growth likely acted as a material offset to the more positive local news. There are a number of unusual influences on sentiment at present, such as the bushfires and coronavirus and the offsetting impact of strength in the labour market. This makes it more difficult than usual to assess how consumer spending will respond. We think this difficulty will see the RBA opting to wait for more information before it considers a further reduction in the cash rate," said David Plank, ANZ’s Head of Australian Economics.