ANZ’s survey of consumer confidence dived 3.2 per cent last week, to a five-and-a-half year low as coronavirus concerns spread across the world.
The current economic conditions subindex declined by 16.6pc, the largest since January 2009, as the stock market fell into correction territory.
“The fall seen in ‘current economic conditions’ shows that Australians are getting skittish about the well-being of the economy, though they are still quite content about their personal financial circumstances,” ANZ head of Australian Economics David Plank says.
“This divergence remains the most notable aspect of the confidence survey. So far the negative economic outlook has been a better guide to household spending than more positive financial sentiment.”
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.
