Consumer confidence on the mend

According to the latest ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence Index, consumer confidence rose 1.1 per cent to 115.1 this week, suggesting a delayed positive reaction to the Reserve Bank of Australia’s decision to cut the official cash rate earlier this month.

The index found the improvement in confidence was driven by consumers’ views of the economic outlook, with sentiment towards ‘economic conditions in the next 12 months’ bouncing back 6.1 per cent, and sentiment towards ‘the economy in the next five years’ rising 3.3 per cent.

However, consumer sentiment towards current personal finances fell 1.8 per cent, while sentiment towards future personal finances was down 0.6 per cent.

Consumer sentiment towards buying a household item also declined 0.7 per cent.

“With news on the election battle quite mixed over the past week, we expect that there was little impact on sentiment,” ANZ head of Australian Economics Felicity Emmett said.

“With such a long election campaign, however, it will be interesting to see how quickly voter fatigue sets in.

“With the economic outlook still quite uncertain, we expect that confidence will remain sensitive to developments in the domestic economic data, as well as the evolution of the political debate in the lead-up to the July election.”

[Related: Housing affordability debate heats up]