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Australian Economic Indicators
by aaaa710
Consumer Confidence Business Confidence Fuel Prices
Consumer confidence continued to fall through the final quarter of 2022.
Despite a small improvement in December, Australian’s consumer confidence remains at the lows seen through the COVID pandemic, and the Global Financial Crisis.
This poor result is largely being driven by the ongoing cost of living crisis and concerns about the overall outlook of the economy. Given further inflationary pressure suggests more rate rises to come, this is likely to get worse before it gets better.
Business confidence fell during the final quarter of 2022, largely due to a poor result in November. Despite this, business confidence rebounded strongly in December, driven by increasing confidence about the performance of the Australian economy over both the short term (throughout 2023) and long term (next 5 years.)
It will be interesting to see how business’s react throughout the first quarter of 2023, with further rate rises likely to impact consumer spending through 2023.
Petrol prices remained at a similar level in Q4, averaging 2c a litre more across the country than in the previous quarter. While this does suggest a level of stability, the reality is harder to predict. The ongoing war in Ukraine will continue to stretch global oil supplies, while in Australia living costs continue to increase, suggesting that further price fluctuations are likely.
