Source: ANZ statements
ANZ Economist, Madeline Dunk said: “ANZ-Roy Morgan Australian Consumer Confidence eased 0.9pts last week, driven by a 6.0pt fall in the ‘time to buy a major household item’ subindex. The current financial situation subindex also declined 1.9pts, but it is still up 5.2pts over the past two weeks and 9.6pts compared to the start of July. Despite some volatility in the week-to-week data, it appears the Stage 3 tax cuts are supporting confidence. Notably, inflation expectations fell to 4.7 per cent, their lowest level since January 2022, before inflation picked up materially in Australia.
It’s been a bumpy path down for inflation expectations since the peak of 6.8 per cent in November 2022, and that bumpiness has been evident in other measures like the NAB business survey’s price measures. The NAB measures are now consistent with inflation sitting around 2.5 per cent. We’ll be watching to see if inflation expectations continue to moderate over the coming weeks.”