Australian weekly consumer sentiment rises for seventh consecutive week

Australian weekly confidence rose for the seventh consecutive week. The ANZ-Roy Morgan Australian consumer sentiment index rose 0.4 percent. A solid rise of 5.8 percent in ‘Time to buy a household item’ underpinned the index, with aggregate financial and economic conditions easing last week.

Aggregate financial conditions eased as the 0.8 percent gain in ‘current financial conditions’ was not enough to counter the 2.1 percent fall in ‘future financial conditions’. This drop came after five straight gains.

Similar to the direction of the financial conditions components, ‘current economic conditions’ gained 0.4 percent while ‘future economic conditions’ dropped 1.7 percent. The four-week moving average of ‘Inflation expectations’ continued to be stable at 3.5 percent.

“Building on the momentum from the Budget, confidence gained for the seventh week in a row. Barring Tasmania, New South Wales and Victoria all the states are above the neutral level of 100. Among the major cities, Melbourne weakened while confidence in Brisbane and Sydney surged. Further easing of COVID-19 induced restrictions should support the index over this week as it seeks to move back to its pre-pandemic level”, commented ANZ Head of Australian Economics, David Plank.