While economists increasingly believe that Australia will avoid a recession, actual consumers are being buffeted by pressure on their own household budgets.
Neither the rising property market nor the spectre of the end of interest rate rises has been enough to drag consumers out of the quagmire of persistent pessimism.
The two major surveys measuring how we view our own finances and the broader economy have only gotten worse overall. Not even rising house values was enough to rescue sentiment from the doldrums, although the confidence measure for those with mortgages was improved. But the cohort that own their own homes and those who rent didn’t receive any fillip from the positive outlook on interest rates, according to the Westpac-Melbourne Institute Consumer Sentiment. Among lower income earners and renters sentiment is particularly dire.The “family finances versus a year ago” sub-index fell 4.
And the higher interest rates also mean that people cannot borrow as much as they previously could. This view is supported by anaemic economic growth and forecasts that unemployment will eventually rise, albeit from the very tight labour market we are currently experiencing.
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