The easing of lockdown restrictions has improved confidence in the Australian economy, according to the latest Melbourne Institute Survey of the Impact of COVID-19 in Australia, which contains responses from 1200 persons aged 18 years and over. However, 40% of survey respondents expect to be impacted for at least another six months and 28% are financially stressed – a figure that has worsened over the past three weeks:
Since the announcement of the easing of restrictions on Friday 8 May 2020 (before the start of wave 6 of the survey), the proportion of Australians expecting the effect of the pandemic on economic activity to last for more than 12 months has fallen from 57% in wave 5 to 53% in wave 6, and then to 50% in wave 7.
The wave 7 survey also asked how much longer the respondents expect to be personally affected by the pandemic in terms of their home activities, employment situation and social interactions. Forty per cent (40%) of respondents expect to be affected for at least another 6 months, while 20% expect to be affected for more than 12 months…
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Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness.
Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.
