By
Consumer confidence levels are the highest they’ve been in four months, with Roy Morgan Research’s Gary Morgan claiming the results are due to Tony Abbot’s likely succession as Prime Minister.
The weekly Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence Rating has risen to 119.4 (up 3pts in a week since August 17/18, 2013), driven by increases in confidence about prospects for the next 12 months.
Almost half (44%) of Australians expect to be ‘better off’ financially this time next year (the highest since February 23/24, 2013) compared to 12% that expect their family to be ‘worse off’ financially.
An increasing majority of Australians (55%) say now is a ‘good time to buy’ major household items, while just 19% of Australians say now is a ‘bad time to buy’.
Also, 38% (up 2%) of Australians expect the national economy to have ‘good times’ over the next five years, compared to 19% (unchanged) of Australians that expect the opposite.
However, Australians are less confident about their personal finances compared to this time last year with 32% saying they are ‘better off’ financially than this time last year and 27% saying they are ‘worse off’ financially.
“Consumer confidence is now at its highest for more than four months, since April 20/21, 2013 (123.8),” says Morgan. “The rise in consumer confidence comes as Liberal Party leader, Tony Abbott, appears increasingly likely to become Australia’s next Prime Minister in two weeks’ time.”
The latest Morgan Poll shows the L-NP (51.5%, up 0.5%) increasing its lead over the ALP (48.5%) on a two-party preferred basis, which Morgan says is the biggest lead the L-NP has held since Kevin Rudd returned as Prime Minister in late June.
