Australian weekly consumer confidence index falls following Budget

Australian weekly consumer confidence eases after the Budget. The ANZ-Roy Morgan Australian consumer confidence index falls 1.3 percent last week, in spite of the tax cuts set out in the Budget. Consumer confidence is just above its long-run average. Current finances dropped 1.7 percent, while future finances rose 1.7 percent, thus having a neutral effect on the combined index.

Current economic conditions were up 0.7 percent, building on the rise of 8.1 percent seen in the prior reading. Future economic conditions rose modestly by 0.8 percent, though this was the fourth consecutive weekly rise. The ‘time to buy a household item’ dropped 7.4 percent. Four-week moving average inflation expectations remained stable at 4 percent. The weekly reading rose to 4.3 percent, more than reversing the prior week’s large fall.

“The fall in confidence last week would be seen as disappointing in Canberra given the near-term boost to household incomes delivered in the Budget. Given the usual volatility in the weekly data, we don’t believe the decline indicates a negative response to the Budget. Rather, it suggests the announcements failed to provide a boost. On a definitely positive note, the sharp decline in the weekly inflation expectations reading in last week’s numbers more than reversed this week. This will be some comfort to the RBA”, said ANZ Senior Economist, David Plank.

At 12:00 GMT the FxWirePro's Hourly Strength Index of Australia was bullish at 82.3936 while the FxWirePro's Hourly Strength Index of US Dollar was neutral at 25.8974 more details on FxWirePro's Currency Strength Index, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex