The latest report by the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) and Roy Morgan market research company said Australia's consumer confidence decreased by 1.5 percent to 79.9 points in the week to Oct. 30, 28.5 points less than a year earlier and 9.9 points less than the 2022 weekly average of 89.8.
The report also revealed that the proportion of survey respondents who think they are financially worse off than a year earlier has risen to 47 percent, the highest since March 2020.
Looking forward, 28 percent of Australians expect their family to be "better off" financially this time next year while 37 percent expect to be "worse off," according to the report.
The decline in consumer confidence came after Australia's consumer price index rose 1.8 percent in the September quarter and 7.3 percent annually, marking the highest annual increase in over three decades.
On Tuesday, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), Australia's central bank, announced another interest rate hike, by 25 basis points to 2.85 percent, the seventh rise in a row.
"Cost of living concerns, along with expectations of more rate hikes by the RBA, have caused confidence to decline to levels last seen during the early weeks of the COVID lockdowns," said ANZ head of Australian economics David Plank.
"This is also reflected in the 15.6 percent decline in confidence among people paying off their mortgages over the past six weeks."
Plank added that the continued decline in confidence seems to hold back on spending, as ANZ data for October indicating the usual run-up at this time is not occurring.
Latest comments