ANZ Roy Morgan confidence lifts

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by Chris Becker

The weekly ANZ-Roy Morgan consumer confidence index lifted slightly but the trend is still well down:

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ANZ chief economist Warren Hogan:

The RBA’s rate cut last week looks to have supported households’ confidence around their finances. However, it is no surprise that consumers remain concerned about the economic outlook with unemployment reported to have increased to 6.2% in April. Moreover concerns around the outlook are likely to be heightened leading up to the release of the Budget tonight.

In an environment of declining investment, rising unemployment and low inflation, the announcements in the Budget tonight will be critical in shaping consumers’ view of the economic outlook.

So far the Government’s pre-Budget announcements do not appear to be impacting confidence in the same way as last year, although overall confidence has been trending lower since the start of 2015.

Last years Budget put a massive dent in consumer confidence and this year Treasurer Hockey will attempt to not make the same mistake.

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