Consumer confidence rose 1.7 per cent last week as Omicron cases remained on a downward trend across Australia. Confidence increased in NSW and WA, declined in Victoria and Queensland and was virtually unchanged in SA.
‘Weekly inflation expectations’ dropped 0.3ppt to 4.7 per cent, its lowest since mid-December. Its four-week moving average fell 0.1ppt to 4.9 per cent.
Four out of the five subindices registered gains. ‘Current financial conditions’ dropped 1.8 per cent, while ‘future financial conditions’ gained 0.8 per cent.
‘Current economic conditions’ jumped 5.9 per cent after falling 18.3 per cent since midDecember. ‘Future economic conditions’ rose 1.1 per cent.
‘Time to buy a major household item’ increased 2.7 per cent.
“Consumer confidence increased 1.7 per cent last week amid falling COVID cases across most of the country.” ANZ Head of Australian Economics, David Plank said.
“The rise was mainly driven by a jump in confidence in NSW (6.2 per cent) after three weeks of decline and a 4.3 per cent gain in WA. It was partly offset by declines in Victoria (-2.5 per cent) and Queensland (-0.6 per cent).”
“A more surprising shift was the 0.3ppt fall in inflation expectations (IE) to 4.7 per cent. This came in the same week that the Q4 2021 CPI reported an upward surprise.”
“Retail petrol prices are up 7.0 per cent in January, which would usually elevate inflation expectations. We should not to read too much into a single data point, though, as inflation expectations can be quite volatile from week to week.”
