Consumer confidence is steadily rising across Australia, as the states and territories release the previous restrictions allowing businesses to re-open and people to go back to work.
The ANZ-Roy Morgan Australian Consumer Confidence survey has recorded its eighth straight weekly rise, up 0.4% last week to 92.7, helped by the government wage subsidy scheme and a recovering jobs market.
The confidence measure is now up 42% from its low point in March, when fears about the pandemic were the highest.
“Government measures and signs that the job market is stabilising seem to be playing a key part in the recovery of the index despite recent concerns over trade with China and weak retail sales,” says ANZ chief economist David Plank.
The indicator for people’s expectations about “future financial conditions” rose 3.2% and is now near average levels, while sentiment about current economic conditions gained 0.3%.Confidence about “time to buy a major household item” strengthened further, up 2.5%.
The ANZ-Roy Morgan measure confirms the latest Westpac-Melbourne Institute Index of Consumer Sentiment published in mid-May. It found that sentiment had rebounded 16.4% in May.
