•The Westpac Melbourne Institute Index of Consumer Sentiment rose 3.9% to 106.1 in July from 102.1 in June.
The consumer mood showed a clear improvement in July. The latest reading is the most positive result since November 2013 with the Index 8% above the average in 2014 to 2017. This is the eighth month in which the Index has been above 100, indicating optimists outnumber pessimists, a clear turnaround on the previous year in which 11 out of 12 readings were below 100.
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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.
