Fresh from Roy Morgan, it seems Qantas and Holden matter to the punters:
The weekly Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence Rating fell to 114.6 (down 5.5pts in a week since November 30/December 1, 2013). The fall in confidence was driven by respondents having less confidence in all components of the survey but mainly about economic conditions in Australia over the next 12 months.
Now just 29% (down 6%) of Australians expect ‘good times’ for the Australian economy over the next twelve months and 31% (up 5%) expect ‘bad times’.
Australians are also less confident about their personal finances over the next twelve months with 16% (up 5%) of Australians expecting to be ‘worse off’ financially this time next year (the highest since August 3/4, 2013) compared to 39% (down 1%) that expect their family to be ‘better off’ financially.
In addition, compared to this time last year now 31% (down 1%) of Australians say they are ‘better off’ financially and 25% (up 2%) say they are ‘worse off’ financially.
A decreasing majority of Australians 52% (down 3%) say now is a ‘good time to buy’ major household items while 18% (up 1%) of Australians say now is a ‘bad time to buy’.
Also, now 34% (down 2%) of Australians expect ‘good times’ for the Australian economy over the next five years compared to 22% (up 2%) that expect ‘bad times’.
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal.
He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.
