Via Westpac:
•In what is already shaping as a hotly contested retail high season, the early signs are not promising for consumer spending over Christmas 2017. The picture from November’s Westpac-Melbourne Institute Consumer Sentiment survey is one of income pressures, nervousness about the year ahead and consumers looking to keep Christmas spending on a tight rein. A repeat of 2016’s ‘tepid’ Christmas spend looks likely.
•November’s Westpac-Melbourne Institute Consumer Sentiment survey showed the consumer mood slipping back into slightly pessimistic territory after a brief moment of optimism in October (see Consumer Sentiment Index back below 100). Responses to our annual question on Christmas spending underscore the lacklustre tone. The question asks if consumers expect to spend less, about the same, or more on Christmas gifts than last year. Just under a third of Australians expect to spend less on gifts this year than last, with 54% expecting to spend about the same and just 11% spending more – the lowest proportion since we began running this question in 2009.