Australian consumer confidence hit a 32-month high at 88.5 (prior 86.0)

ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence weekly survey.

The data was out earlier, just doing a catch-up.

Consumer confidence rose 2.5 points last week to 88.5 points

• four-week moving average +0.3 points to 86.9 points

• Weekly inflation expectations -0.4 to 4.6%

ANZ comment:

• Consumer Confidence highest level since May 2022
• Households are feeling more confident about the economic outlook, with short-term economic confidence rising to its highest level since April 2022 (before the first rate hike in May 2022), while economic confidence over the next five years reached a 12-month high.
• The decline in weekly inflation expectations and the broad-based lift across the subindices may have been influenced by discussion that the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) could cut rates at its February meeting. This comes after the quarterly CPI indicator showed that the RBA’s preferred measure of inflation, the trimmed mean, printed below RBA forecasts in Q4

This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at www.forexlive.com.