Consumer confidence has hit its highest level since late June, leaping 4.9 per cent in the past week.
The weekly ANZ-Roy Morgan survey released on Tuesday found all of its confidence sub-indices improving except “time to buy a major household item”, which was down 0.5 per cent.
“Current financial conditions” rose 5.4 per cent, while “future financial conditions” gained 8.2 per cent from the week before and moved back above 100 and into net positive territory for the first time since late May
The “current economic conditions” sub-indice rose 13.8 per cent to its highest level since early June.
ANZ head of Australian economics David Plank says the drop in confidence in the week of the Reserve Bank’s cash rate lift was “more than completely reversed” in the latest survey.
“Across the major states, confidence was up very strongly in Western Australia and made solid gains in NSW and Victoria,” he said.
“Confidence declined in Queensland and South Australia, however.”
He said the sentiment about “future financial conditions” spoke to the strength of the labour market.
The latest employment figures will be released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Thursday.
“We aren’t getting carried away. Sentiment toward ‘future financial conditions’ is still well below average and overall confidence is deeply negative,” Mr Plank said.
CommSec expects the jobless rate to be steady at 3.5 per cent, with 20,000 jobs created in July.
The RBA will shed light on its rates decision with the release of its monetary policy meeting minutes on Tuesday.
