Consumer confidence has lifted to its highest level since June, with more households expecting to be better off in a year.
The ANZ Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence Index lifted six points in November to just over 98.
However, a score below 100 indicates more pessimists than optimists.
“It’s good to see a decent lift in consumer confidence this month, though it is yet to break out of recent ranges,” ANZ chief economist Sharon Zollner said.
“Although it’s early days in terms of the economic recovery, this is not the only indicator suggesting that things are looking up for consumers,” she said.
A net 21% of respondents expected to be better off this time next year, the highest level since April.
“Consumer arrears have been declining, employment has returned to modest growth, and retailers are reporting improved activity,” Zollner said.
ANZ said a net 9% thought it was a bad time to buy a major household item, suggesting ongoing caution.
Zollner said the “good time to buy” indicator has not been positive in more than four years.
“Consumers’ reluctance to spend in recent years has certainly been felt by the retail sector.”
Zollner noted falling consumer arrears, employment returning to modest growth and retailers reporting improved activity.
“Our card spending data shows a return to growth across a broad range of discretionary categories, though overall spending levels are still very subdued compared to the Covid-era boom.”
Zollner said aside from lower inflation, the slowdown also led to household debt relative to incomes back to where it was before the housing bubble.
“Now we’ve taken our medicine, the stars are aligning for better times ahead.”
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Even Australians get it - so why not Kiwis???
“Ten years ago, if a heatwave as intense as last week’s record-breaker had hit the east coast, Australia’s power supply may well have buckled. But this time, the system largely operated as we needed, despite some outages.
On Australia’s main grid last quarter, renewables and energy storage contributed more than 50% of supplied electricity for the first time, while wholesale power prices were more than 40% lower than a year earlier.
[…] shifting demand from gas and coal for power and petrol for cars is likely to deliver significantly lower energy bills for households.
Last quarter, wind generation was up almost 30%, grid solar 15% and grid-scale batteries almost tripled their output. Gas generation fell 27% to its lowest level for a quarter century, while coal fell 4.6% to its lowest quarterly level ever.
Gas has long been the most expensive way to produce power. Gas peaking plants tend to fire up only when supply struggles to meet demand and power prices soar. Less demand for gas has flowed through to lower wholesale prices.”
Full article: www.theguardian.com...
If even Australians see the benefit of solar - then why is NZ actively boycotting solar uptake? The increased line rental for electricity was done to make solar less competitive and prevent cost per kWh to rise even more than it did - and electricity costs are expected to rise even more. Especially as National favours gas - which is the most expensive form of generating electricity. Which in turn will accelerate Climate Change, as if New Zealand didn’t have enough problems with droughts, floods, slips, etc. already.
Time to Tickle Your Thinker 🧠
If a zookeeper had 100 pairs of animals in her zoo, and two pairs of babies are born for each one of the original animals, then (sadly) 23 animals don’t survive, how many animals do you have left in total?
Do you think you know the answer? Simply 'Like' this post and we'll post the answer in the comments below at 2pm on the day!
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Poll: As a customer, what do you think about automation?
The Press investigates the growing reliance on your unpaid labour.
Automation (or the “unpaid shift”) is often described as efficient ... but it tends to benefit employers more than consumers.
We want to know: What do you think about automation?
Are you for, or against?
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9.5% For. Self-service is less frustrating and convenient.
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43.3% I want to be able to choose.
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47.2% Against. I want to deal with people.
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